{"id":27853,"date":"2025-07-16T09:40:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T09:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=27853"},"modified":"2025-07-19T08:44:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T08:44:58","slug":"ship-that-carries-me-home-the","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/ship-that-carries-me-home-the\/","title":{"rendered":"Ship that carries me home, The"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>
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First Published<\/td>1885<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>John F Mitchell<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN39416<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>unknown<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
Creagh, John ; Ireland : Co. Wicklow ; 1978<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The Ship That Carries Me Home.<\/strong>
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.
<\/em>
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:
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 A song  written in 1885 by ex-patriate British music hall songwriter, JF Mitchell,<\/a> 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 <\/em>(1991).  In America it was sung by various Minstrel groups and variety performers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
 In 1978 it was collected by Tom Munnelly from the singing of John Creagh in County Wiclow , Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n