> Peter Bellamy > Songs > Warlike Seamen (The Irish Captain)
> Tony Rose > Songs > Come All You Warlike Seamen

Warlike Seamen / The Irish Captain / The Dolphin

[ Roud 690 ; Ballad Index DTwarlik ; trad.]

This is a song from the Copper Family's repertoire. Jim, John, Bob and Ron Copper's recording on April 3, 1952 for the BBC Sound Archive Library was published in 1987 on the LP Coppersongs: A Living Tradition. Bob and his grandson Ben Copper also sang it on the CD Coppersongs 3: The Legacy Continues.

Peter Bellamy and Chris Birch sang Warlike Seamen on Bellamy's third solo LP, The Fox Jumps Over the Parson's Gate. This recording was also included in the Topic anthology Round Cape Horn: Traditional Songs of Sailors, Ships and the Sea. A.L. Lloyd commented in the original album's liner notes:

The song began its life in the seventeenth century and concerned the little merchant ship Marigold, 70 tons, owned by a Mr Ellis of Bristol, which fought a brisk and successful skirmish with “Turkish” pirates off the coast of Algiers. At the end of the eighteenth century the song was re-jigged to suit the times, and now it dealt with an encounter with the French, fought by a ship variously called the Nottingham and the London (the London was one of the ships involved in the Spithead mutiny, and it poked its bowsprit into several songs of the time, through being in the news). For some reason the ballad has been particularly well liked in East Anglia (Harry Cox has a version called Liverpool Play; Sam Larner called his set The Dolphin). This duet setting comes from Bob and Ron Copper, the Sussex cousins.

Sam Larner's version, The Dolphin, can be found on his Topic CD, Now Is The Time for Fishing. This was collected by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger in Sam Larner's home between 1958 and 1960. Ewan MacColl sang The Dolphin a few years later on his and A.L. Lloyd's Prestige / Transatlantic LP, A Sailor's Garland.

Tony Rose sang Come All You Warlike Seamen at the Cheltenham Folk Club in 1967. This recording was included in his posthumous CD Exe.

Lyrics

Peter Bellamy sings Warlike Seamen

Come all you warlike seamen that to the seas belong;
I'll tell you of a fight, my boys, on board the Nottingham.
It was of an Irish captain, his name was Somerville,
With courage bold he did control, he played his part so well.

'Twas on the eighth of June, my boys, when at Spithead we lay,
On board there came an order, our anchor for to weigh.
Bound for the coast of Ireland, our orders did run so:
For us to cruise and not confuse and face a daring foe.

We had not sailed many leagues at sea before a ship we spied.
She being some lofty Frenchman come a-bearing down so wide.
We hailed her off France, my boys, she asked from whence we came.
Our answer was, “From Liverpool, and London is our name.”

“Oh pray are you some man of war, oh pray, what may you be?”
Oh then replied our captain, “And that you soon shall see.
Come strike your English colours or else you shall bring to.
Since you're so stout, you shall give out, or else we will sink you.”

The first broadside we gave to them, it made them for to wonder.
Their mainmast and their rigging too a-rattling down like thunder.
We drove them from their quarters, they could no longer stay.
Our guns did roar, we made so sure we showed them British play.

So now we've took that ship, my boys, and God speed us fair wind
That we might sail to Plymouth town if the heavens prove so kind.
We'll drink a health unto our captain and all such warlike souls.
To him we'll drink, and never flinch, out of a flowing bowl.

Tony Rose sings Come All You Warlike Seamen

Come all you warlike seamen that to the seas belong;
I'll tell you of a fight, my boys, on board the Nottingham.
It was of an Irish captain, his name was Somerville,
With courage bold he did control, he played his part so well.

'Twas on the eighth of June, my boys, when at Spithead we lay,
On board there came an order, our anchor for to weigh.
Bound for the coast of Ireland, our orders did run so:
For us to cruise and not refuse against a daring foe.

We had not sailed many lengths at sea before a ship we spied.
She being some lofty Frenchman come a-bearing down so wide.
We hailed her off France, my boys, she asked from whence we came.
Our answer was, “From Liverpool, and London is our name.”

“Oh pray are you some man of war, oh pray, what may you be?”
Oh then replied our captain, “Why, that you soon shall see.
Come strike your English colours or else you shall bring to.
Since you're so stout, you shall give out, or else we will sink you.”

The first broadside we gave to them, it caused them for to wonder.
Their mainmast and their rigging came a-rattling down like thunder.
We drove them from their quarters, they could no longer stay.
Our guns did roar, we made so sure we showed them British play.

So now we've took that ship, my boys, God speed us fair wind
That we might sail to Plymouth town if the heavens prove so kind.
We'll drink a health unto our captain and all such warlike souls.
To him we'll drink, and never flinch, out of a flowing bowl.