| AKA | |
| First Published | 1885 |
| Writer/composer | John F Mitchell | Roud | RN39416 |
| Music Hall Performers | unknown |
| Folk performances | Collected from the singing of: Creagh, John ; Ireland : Co. Wicklow ; 1978 |
The Ship That Carries Me Home.
Copyright,1885, by Willis Woodward & Co
Words and Music by J. F. Mitchell.
The ship that carries me home to-day, to she whom I love and prize,
Is dancing out on the glistening bay, with sails like the fleecy skim;
My heart pulsates like the restless tide when I think of my lassie sweet,
For we'll join at last, after years have past, and our hearts and our lips shall meet;
I'll gather the sailors 'round me in a ring,
And this shall be the song that I will sing:
There's a pair of roguish dark blue eyes watching for me on shore,
A pair of arms that will twine around, and never lose me more;
A smile that's like the sunshine; as it dances on the spray,
So sing: "Yo ho!" that the ship may go, which carries me home to-day.
I've cast my lead in the sea of love, 'tis full twenty fathoms deep,
It reflects the joys of a land above, the log in my heart I'll keep;
Like a boy I long for the day we'll meet with a ship-wrecked sailor's thirst,
On the prow I'll stand, as we near the land, that my eyes shall behold her first;
I'll gather the sailors 'round me in a ring,
And this shall be the song that I will sing:
A song written in 1885 by ex-patriate British music hall songwriter, JF Mitchell, after he had emigrated to the USA. I can find no evidence of it being sung by professional performers on stage in Britain, but newspapers carried regular reports of amateur performances from 1887 on. It must have been a reasonably well known song in the UK as it was parodied by songwriter Charles Osborne as The slop that carried us home (1991). In America it was sung by various Minstrel groups and variety performers.
In 1978 it was collected by Tom Munnelly from the singing of John Creagh in County Wiclow , Ireland.
Sources:
- Entries in the Roud Indexes at the Vaughn Williams Memorial Library: https://archives.vwml.org/search/all:single[folksong-broadside-books]/0_50/all/score_desc/extended-roudNo_tr%3A39416
- Kilgarrif Sing Us
- Lyrics: Wehman’s Collection of Songs No 26, p15
- Sheet Music not found
Last Updated on July 19, 2025 by John Baxter | Published: July 16, 2025
