Don't Forget Your Old Shipmate

"Don't Forget Your Old Shipmate" is a traditional Royal Navy song written in 1860 by Richard C. Saunders, who at the time was serving as Schoolmaster on the HMS Marlborough. The song was first published in 1908 by Sir Charles Harding Firth in his collection Naval Songs and Ballads for the Navy Records Society. English folk singer Jim Mageean discovered the song in the 1970s and recorded it for his 1978 album Of Ships...And Men, but it did not see a significant resurgence in popularity until its inclusion in the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.^[1]

The Longest Johns released their version of the song as track 2 on Smoke + Oakum.

Factoids[]

According to the 1771 Encyclopædia Britannica, a cannon would be manned by 12 people: two gunners, six soldiers, and four officers of the artillery. The sponger's job was to clean the cannon between rounds to remove any remaining sparks or flame, which would endanger the life of the loading crew when fresh powder was introduced. The sponge they used was a long staff or rammer with a piece of fleece or lambskin wound around its end.

An earing (sometimes spelled "earring") was a small rope used to fasten the corner of a sail to a spar or yard; the weather earing was the earing at the windward side of the ship. In the Age of Sail, a position at the weather earing was considered a place of honor for the topmen.

The middle watch was the watch shift from midnight to 4:00 AM.

Lyrics[]

These lyrics are based off the version performed on Smoke + Oakum. The older lyrics collected by Firth in 1908 are available here (see page 337).

Safe and sound at home again, let the waters roar, Jack.
Safe and sound at home again, let the waters roar, Jack.

{Chorus}:
Long we've tossed on the rolling main, now we're safe ashore, Jack.
Don't forget yer old shipmate, faldee raldee raldee raldee rye-eye-doe!

Since we sailed from Plymouth Sound, four years gone, or nigh, Jack.
Was there ever chummies, now, such as you and I, Jack?

{Chorus}

We have worked the self-same gun, quarterdeck division.
Sponger I and loader you, through the whole commission.

{Chorus}

Oftentimes have we laid out, toil nor danger fearing,
Tugging out the flapping sail to the weather earring.

{Chorus}

When the middle watch was on, and the time went slow, boy,
Who could choose a rousing stave, who like Jack or Joe, boy?

{Chorus}

There she swings, an empty hulk, not a soul below now.
Number seven starboard mess misses Jack and Joe now.

{Chorus}

But the best of friends must part, fair or foul the weather.
Hand yer flipper for a shake, now a drink together.

{Chorus x2}

Recordings[]

Streaming/Purchase[]

YouTube Videos[]

Album version

Gig Videos[]

Full Band Streams[]

Gaming Streams[]

↑ https://www.hardtackers.com/JerryBryantPaper.html

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