Royal Navy, naval, songs, ditty,dities, list, index

 

The site dedicated to the preservation of
Royal Navy Songs

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Barry E. Scott
16, Hendford
Yeovil, Somerset.
BA20 1TE
Tel: +44(0)1935 425603

Email: info@navysong.co.uk

 

INDEX - First Lines & Titles
You are at : Home : Songs

Included on this site, are some of the Royal Naval songs collected by the author (Barry Scott), during his twenty eight years naval service. This primary collection has been expanded from reference to various   autobiographical sources,  books and collections. But particularly enhance through the kind assistance of you, my Naval Shipmates. Who, noting I had gone adrift have brought me back on course.

These songs are here because you and other ex-Matelots have seen fit to help preserve them for future generations, yet there are still many gaps and omissions particularly with respect to tunes.

Please help to complete this project. If you remember singing any of these, please write and tell me, when and in what context it was used. Fleet Canteen, at work etc.

Please wherever possible help to give or comment on the illustrated tunes. If the one noted is NOT the one you remember please tell me or better still send me a tape (no matter how poorly sung), so I can get the details right. I would be very grateful as would all the sprogs of the latest generation of sailors.

Of course, you may also know of other songs, that are not mentioned on these pages, please please tell me of those as well. Although I have many recorded within the archive, very few are completely known and many just exist in fragment form. Remember, all these songs often had there own particular lives and we often find several versions circulating with extra or different verses, so again tell me what you yourself remember and please mention if it was the Atlantic or China Fleet favorites etc.

We are very interested in whether, you sang to amuse yourself etc. whilst dhobying or perhaps like me you are proner to come up from time to time withg one-liners something like "Away the Noo - The Seaboats crew" as you leave the house, recall the bosuns pipes on going ashore etc. - these short one liners are extremly important, and frequently changed in popularity, very few have been preserved and even less are correctly placed in chronological context.

If you know the UCKERS song can you get in touch!!!

Please check out the GAMES pages where I attempt to illustrate the old Tombola calls and provide an attempt at reconstructing the Uckers rules, as used in the different fleets etc.

Will those readers from naval families with a long heritage, I would be interested in hearing of the songs you recall your fathers and grandfathers singing, whilst on leave or dandling you on their knees.

Finally little apology, for the frequent pictures of Mermaids, references to Seagulls, or making the occasional pusser faced remark - At my age, it helps the tide go in and out.

The songs are listed by the first lines of verse & chorus It is also the intention to provide a thematic or subject listing

Titles are in Bold Text
First lines are in Normal  Text
First Chorus line in Italic Text

To assist your selection - I have tried to classify each song in the index - as follows

As you will see certain songs can be quite bawdy, so you younger sprogs stay away from those marked 'Bawdy' below...

On occasion the OD's amongst us, like to sing very Bawdy and explicitly sexual material, which of course, if we are to talk about and consider all naval songs, they must be featured here. But I asure you, these are only usually heard on - Sports runs - In pussers bussers - or at the Royal Tournament - and of course MUM never on the messdeck. These rude pieces can be found on the ODs Page with a little explanation as to their origins and use in the RN.

But beware if MUM is right, they can make you blind!

Bawdy - Explicitly Rude.
Trad - Old Traditional Naval Song
Rude - Contains some Rude Words
Dit' - Modern Ditty
Risque - Has Rude sugestion or inferance.
Mono - Monologue
Black - Black or Bad Humour
Sods - Typical SOD's Opera item

However , you might just want to jump in and have a paddle in the puddle

Select Your Song

 A B C D E F G H I J K L M 

N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

 

Don't Forget to go to the for a listing of very Bawdy Material

  A is for Anchor Trad & This item very Bawdy - Would have been on the OD's Page if it wasn't so old.

  Action Stations Again - Dit

  Admiral - Leaps tall buildings - Humourous dit

All the Chiefs and Wrens - Dit

Alphabet Song Trad & very Bawdy

  And we'll all pull together - Rude

  And we'll all go back to Oggie land - Dit

  Angels of Queen Street

  Arethusa, The - Trad

  Arsehole Rules the Navy - Rude verging on the Bawdy

 

Backsides Rules the Navy - Rude almost Bawdy

Brothers St John, The - Sods

Bridge at Midnight - Modern but very traditional and Bawdy in places

 

Cans full of Teepol

Chain of Command - Monologue

Come all ye jolly sailors bold Trad

 

Dhaiso Man's Song - Ditty

Dead Dog Rover - Black

Dogger Bank Cod

Do Your Balls Hang Low Risque

 

Eton Boating Song, The - Rude & Bawdy

Everyone's Gone to Neesoon

 

Fare thee well say goodbye

Flower Boat Song

Fly Me to Neesoon

For England when with fav'ring gale - Trad

Funny Little Fellow

 

Gibraltar National Anthem - Modern Dit

Guide Me Oh Thy Great Clubswinger - Modern Dit

 

Heaving the Lead - Trad

Halls of Montezuma - Trad Dit

HMS Arethusa (1778) - Trad

HMS Cornwall Anthem (1913) - Trad

HMS Norfolk (1980) - Sporting Chant

HMS Penelope (1943)

Hold em down you Zulu Warrior -Trad Sport

 

I am a Sailor Stout and Bold Trad

I'm looking over - Black

It's not for me it's for my Dhaiso - Ditty

It's the same the whole world over - Bawdy

I've Just come away from the wedding - Popular Dit

In the Deepest Part of Africa - Trad Dit

I was walking through the dockyard in a panic - Top 10 Dit

I was walking through the dockyard, one morning - Top 10 Dit

I wonder yes I wonder - Top 10 Dit

 

Jenny Wren Bride  - PopularDit

Jervis Bay - Popular WW2 Dit

Jolly Sailor, The

 

La la la la la la la - Modern Folksong

Leaps tall buildings  with a single bound

Lend us a quid

 

Married, Married, I Married me Jenny Wren Bride - Popular Dit

May the Rose of England - Very Old One Liner

Me have got a flower boat Trad

Midshipmite, The  - Old Song

My brother silveste - Top 10 Dit

 

  Now we've all been sent down from Eton - Rude

 

Oggie Oggie Oggie - Sporting Chant

Oggie Song - Very popular Dit

Oh fare thee well and say good bye - Trad Dit

Oh how happy us will be - Dit

Oh! I'm looking over - Black

Oh please daddy will you take me - Modern Dit

On a Bleak November Evening - WW2 Dit

 

Poor Joe the Marine - Trad

Pompey girls they do surprise us -Trad, Dit

Pretoria - Trad

 

Rambling Sailor, The - Trad

Ram it, I'm RDP - Modern folksong

Remember the night you fell in the shite Bawdy

Roll 'em down you - Sporting Dit

Royal Marine Anthem / Hymn - Trad & Dit

Row of forty medals - Sods

Run Ashore Alphabet - Bawdy

 

Salome - Bawdy

Sambo was a lazy coon - Bawdy

Scarlet Flower, The - Dit

She 's got a face like a messdeck scrubber - Dit

She's a tiddley ship - Trad

She stood on the bridge at midnight - Bawdy Dit

So hi darry, ho darry - Popular Dit

Smally Boys are Cheap Today - Bawdy Dit

Silveste - Top 10 Dit

 

There's a man on our lower deck. - Trad

They walk around the dockyard - Trad

This is my story, this is my song - Trad

Three Badge Stoker - Rude

Three Poor Mariners - Trad

Tidly Winks Old Man - Risque

To the Band of the Royal Marines - Trad Dit

T'was on Falmouth sea shore. -Trad

Twenty Third Flotilla Song WW2 Dit

Twins, The - Sods

Up to Camborne Hill - Dit

Up to Kola Inlet - Dit

 

We be three poor mariners Trad

We'll all pull together - Sport

We'll all go  back to Oggie land - Dit

We're The Twins - Sods

What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor Trad, Worksong & Dit

Whats the good of wearing braces Trad

Whats the matter with Cornwall - Trad

When first I came to Chatham town Trad, Dit

Where be going to Jagger - Dit

Why do I Weep - WW2 Dit

Woad Song - Dit

 

You make fast, I'll make fast Trad & Dit

Young Joe the Marine - Trad

 

Zulu Warrior - Post WW2 Sporting & Run Ashore Dit

 

 
   
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