Big Ship Sailing, A

DESCRIPTION: "There's a big ship sailing on the illie-alley-oh...." "There's a big ship sailing, rocking on the sea...." "There's a big ship sailing, back again...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Dann)
KEYWORDS: nonballad ship
FOUND IN: Ireland New Zealand
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 6, "The Big Ship Sails" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p 162, "The Big Ship Sails" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 36, "(The big ship sails)" (1 short text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 386, "A Big Ship Sailing" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 15, "The Big Ship Sails on the Ally-Ally-O (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: Hollis Dann, First Year Music: Rote Songs for Kindergarten and First Year (New York, 1914 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 90-91, "The Holly, Holly, Ho" ("The big ship sails thro' the Holly, Holly, Ho ... On the last day of December") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4827
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Alley-Alley-O
The Illie-Alley-O
The Eely Ily Oh
NOTES [100 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame has a version referring, with the wrong date, to the 1914 sinking of the Lusitania ("The big ship's name was the Lusitania ... On the fourteenth of November"). Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "The explanation most often heard is that the song celebrates the opening in 1894 of the Manchester Ship Canal ... but this seems to be precluded by a recollection of the game in New Zealand in 1870." - BS
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 15, also cite the building of the Manchester Ship Canal, which took place in 1894, without direct supporting evidence. He describes it as a skipping game. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FSWB386A

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