Did the Swallows get "Rio" wrong?


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Posted by Tom Napier on August 27, 2012 at 10:18:16 user Didymus.

For some fifty years I suffered from a misapprehension. As a child, I'd supposed that "Rio" was Rio de Janeiro.
On rereading the canon about 2000 I noticed that, early in SA, Rio is specified to be short for Rio Grande. This puzzled me as the only Rio Grande of any note is, naturally, a river, not a town. I eventually learned from the AR literature that "Rio Grande" alludes to the shanty of that name with which the Swallows were familiar.
Recently I was looking through an old book, Sailing by Peter Heaton (Pelican, 1949) which gives the words and music for several shanties, including Rio Grande. His version starts off:

Now were you ever in Rio Grande? Away-ay Rio. It's there that the river runs down golden sand and we're bound for the Rio Grande.

Apart from the explicit reference to "the river," the shanty also refers to "the Rio Grande." (Apparently it rhymes with "sand," not "sandy.") This suggests a river or a region but not a town. Could the Swallows have jumped to an unwarranted conclusion?
Is anyone sufficiently familiar with 19th century nautical references to suggest where and what the Rio Grande of the shanty might be?



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