Oceana Roll

DESCRIPTION: "Billy McCoy was a musical boy On the cruiser Alabama, He was there on that 'piana' Like a fish down in the sea When he rattled off some harmony." Even the fish and worms respond to his playing, "There on the Alabama, Playin' the Oceana Roll"
AUTHOR: Words: Roger Lewis / Music by Lucien Denni (source: Sheet music published by Jerome H. Remick & Co)
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Copyright)
KEYWORDS: music ship dancing | fish
FOUND IN: US(MW)
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Collins, "Oceana Roll" (Columbia A1071, 1911)
Eddie Morton, "Oceana Roll" (Victor 16908-A, 1911)
Debra Sharpe, "Billy McCoy (Oceana Roll)" (Piotr-Archive #592, recorded 05/30/2023)
NOTES [246 words]: The obvious temptation is to think that this is about the Alabama, the famous Confederate raider. But, apart from the fact that that ship predated ragtime (and was unlikely to have a "piana"), the cover art from the sheet music shows what is clearly an ironclad vessel from the period c. 1890-1910: the ship has two masts of a sort typical of the period, two funnels, a forward main turret with two guns, and the side shows four casemate guns. According to Jane's, p. 138, the U. S. Navy had just such a ship named Alabama in 1911: displacement about 11,500 tons, two masts, two 13" gun turrets; by 1918, just eight 6" secondary guns in casemates (though they were bullt with more); the members of her class were built 1896-1901. The photo in Jane's shows the ships of this class having cage masts rather than pole masts, and they had only one funnell, but according to Preston, p. 230, the ships had been built with pole masts which were changed for cages 1909-1911. I don't think there is much doubt but that this is the ship intended.
Preston, p. 230, says that the Alabama was laid down 2 December 1896, launched May 18, 1898, and finished October 1900. Although technically in commission in World War I, she was used as a training ship. She was decommissioned in 1920 and used as a target in 1921; she never really served in battle.
She was considered a battleship, not a cruiser, but that distinction was perhaps not as well-known in 1911 as it would be later. - RBW
Bibliography

Jane's-WWI: Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I (1919; I use the 1990 Studio Editions reprint with modern foreword by Captain John Moore, RN)
Preston: Antony Preston, Battleships of World War I, Stackpole Books, 1972

Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio592

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