What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor? by Traditional

Album: Golden Shanties (1824)

Songfacts®:

One of the oldest known Anglo-Saxon sea shanties, having been sung in the Indiamen of the Honorable John Company, "Drunken Sailor" was the only song the Royal Navy allowed its crew members to sing on board. A work song, mainly sung on bigger ships with large crews, it was often chanted by sailors, with all hands roaring out the song in unison, as they hoisted the sail or raised the anchor, hence the chorus: "Wey, hey, up she rises."
The air was taken from a traditional Irish dance and march tune, "Oró Sé do Bheatha 'Bhaile" (Translated as "Óró, you are welcome home") The music was first reproduced in printed form in 1824 in Cole's Selection of Favourite Cotillions published in Baltimore. Its lyrics are much older, and comprise several verses full of various unpleasant things that could be done to sober up an inebriated sailor, including "stick him in the scrubber with a hosepipe on him" and "shave his belly with a rusty razor."
Successive generations of performers have recorded arrangements of the song, including the King's Singers, James Last, The Swingle Singers, Terrorvision and Pete Seeger. In 2005, Toyota used it in a US television commercial.
One common response to the question "What shall we do with the drunken sailor?" is "Put him in the bed with the Captain's Daughter."

Before the #MeToo movement sinks this classic shanty, let's clarify that the "Captain's Daughter" isn't a young woman, but rather refers to a harsh punishment. It's another name for a Cat o' Nine Tails, a multi-tailed whip used for flogging.

Comments: 2

Rustin from Virginia I believe this song is ribald double entendre: what rises waaay up earlay in the mornin’, bobs and weaves like a drunken sailor and can be remedied by the Captain’s daughter, among others? A healthy man’s erection. As for being a ship’s anchor, why in the morning? Getting under way in the age of sail depended as much on wind and tide as time of day.
Frederic from VirginiaThe title is often missed. The actual title is "What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor?" The use of "A" drunken sailor rather than "The" drunken sailor means that drunken sailors are rather common, thus allowing for the varoious miseries to be visited up one.

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