On board o’ the Kangaroo

AKA Aboard the Kangaroo
Milford Bay
Lyrics Harry Clifton Music Harry Clifton Roud RN925

Music Hall Performers  Harry Clifton
Folk performances Source singers:
Alexander Robb, 1906, Scotland
Willie Mathieson, 1952, Aberdeenshire Scotland
Elizabeth Cronin, 1954, Cork, Ireland
Stanley Slade, yr? Bristol ,England,
Harry Cox, 1953, Norfolk, England
Alf Fuller, 1955?, Sydney, Australia
Arthur Barron, 1906, Scotland
Mr Smith, ca 1906?, Scotland
Andrew Findlay, 1906, Scotland
Modern versions
Planxty, 1970,80s
Nic Jones,
Tony Rose		 

From the sheet music c1865
Once I was a waterman man that liv'd at home at ease.
Now I am a mariner and plough the angry seas.
I thought I'd like seafarin' life, so bid my love "adoo"
And shipped as Cook and Steward, boys, on board o' the 'Kangaroo'.

I never thought she would prove false or ever prove untrue
When we sailed away from Milford Bay on board o' the Kangaroo

My love she was no foolish girl, her age it was two score
My love she was no spinster, she'd been married twice before.
And they could not say it was her wealth that stole me heart away;
She was a starcher at a laundresses for eighteen pence a day.

"Oh think of me, oh think of me," she mournfully did say,
"When you are in a foreign land and carousin' far away.
And take this lucky thruppenny bit, 'twill make you bear in mind
That loving, faithful, trusting heart you leave in tears behind."

"Cheer Up, cheer up, my own true love. Don't weep so bitterly,"
But she sobb'd and sigh'd, and choked and cried and couldn't say goodbye
"I shan't be gone for very long, only months a few.
When I does come back again, in course I'll marry you."

Our vessel it was homeward bound from many a foreign shore
And many a foreign present unto me love I bore.
There was Tortoises from Tenerife and toys from Timbuktu
A Chinese rat, a Bengal cat and a Bombay cockatoo.

Paid off, I sought her dwellin' in the sub-bubs of the town
An ancient dame upon the line was hangin' out a gown.
"Where is me love? " "She's married sir, about six months ago
To a smart young man that drives the van for Chaplin, Horne and Co".

Farewell to dreams of married life! to soap, to suds and blue,
To Glenfield Starch and Harpers Twelve Trees Washing Powder too!
I'll seek some far and distant clime, I can no longer stay
On some Chinese Hottingtot* I'll throw my self away!

Another comic song from Harry Clifton that is now firmly entrenched in traditional music in the English-speaking world. The sheet music has Clifton dressed as a sailor…

The earliest surviving sheet music was published in 1865, words credited to Harry Clifton and music to John Candy. Described as “modernised Dibdin” a writer who specialised in patriotic navy songs 50 or more years earlier. It seems to have been around at least a year earlier than 1865, as the review from July 1864 suggests.

July 24, 1864; The Era 

According to later reports in The Era newspaper it was sung as part of the performance of a play called A Fight with Fate at the Surrey Theatre (London) in September 1864

The song features in a wide range of 19th-century broadsheets and song books It has been collected from source singers all over the world, but particularly in Scotland, perhaps reflecting the less selective ethos of the Greg-Duncan collection.

In modern times it has been recorded by Planxty, Nic Jones and Tony Rose, who seem to have got it from the singing of Elizabeth Cronin. Stan Hugill describes it as a capstan shanty, set to an Irish tune. There’s no reason to think that sailors would not adopt a Music Hall song to accompany their work , and I have heard versions with the chorus repeated after every two lines of verse, which makes it sound much more like the call and response of some shanties.

NB: “Hottentot” is a racist term first used by the Dutch and later adopted in Britain. It refers to the clicking sound which features in the language of Southern African Khoisan peoples. I tend to sing On some Chinese volcano I’ll throw myself away but perhaps I’m being overly dramatic…

Planxty introduce their interpretation:

Sources: