Ship Ahoy (All the nice girls love a sailor)

AKA All the nice girls like a sailor
First published 1905
Lyrics AJ Mills Music Bennett Scott Roud V53408

Music Hall performers Hetty King 1910s, 20s etc
Ella Retford 1910s, 20s etc
Folk performances 

When the man-o-war or merchant ship comes sailing into port
The Jolly Tar with joy, will sing out 'Land ahoy'
With his pockets full of money and a parrot in a cage
He smiles at all the pretty girls upon the landing stage.

All the nice girls love a sailor
All the nice girls love a tar
For there's something about a sailor
Well, you know what sailors are
Bright and breezy, free and easy
He's the ladies pride and joy
Falls in love with Kate and Jane
Then he's off to sea again
Ship ahoy, ship ahoy.

Jack is partial to the yellow girls across the Eastern seas
With lovely almond eyes, the tar they hypnotise
And when he goes to the Sandwich Isles he loves the dusky belles
Dressed a la Salome, coloured beads and oyster shells.
 
He will spend his money freely and he's generous to his pals
While Jack has got a sou, there's half of it for you
And it's just the same in love and war, he goes through with a smile
And you can trust a sailor, he's a white man all the while.

A song whose chorus seems to have been imprinted on every person born in the British Isles before about 1980… But I’m not aware of it ever being a hit in the traditional music world as such, perhaps because it’s so well-known, or maybe it’s the racist last line…

Hetty King (1883 to 1972), billed as “The Immaculate Man”, was one of the most famous female-to-male cross dressers in the Music Hall of the early 20th century. She was born into a family of travelling artistes, her father had a portable theatre and managed a troupe called Uncle Billy King’s Minstrels. From as young as the age of five, Hetty was mimicking male comedians. In her early 20s she became a male impersonator full-time with hits like I Want a Gibson Girl and When I Get Back to Piccadilly.

King’s most famous hit was Ship Ahoy! – her stage impression of a sailor was apparently reinforced by the many hours she spent learning how to cut and roll pipe tobacco like the sailors did. She received love letters from young women, but unlike the other female cross dressers like Ella Shields, Hetty was reputed to treat them rather cruelly, claiming that letters from female admirers sickened her.

Ella Retford (1886-1962) was billed as “The Breezy Comedienne”. She was born in Ireland and celebrated the fact in her hit song of 1914 “We’re Irish and we’re proud of it too,” but also had a hit with “Hello There, Little Tommy Atkins” during World War 1. She recorded a number of records in the 1920s.

Ella Retford sings:

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