Digital Tradition Mirror

The Black Ball Line

(This score available as ABC, SongWright, PostScript, PNG, or PMW, or a MIDI file)
Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

The Black Ball Line

I served my time on the Black Ball line
     To me way-ay-ay O Ri-o
On the Black Ball line I served my time
     Hurrah for the Black Ball line!

The Black Ball ships they are good and true
And they are the ships for me and you.

For once there was a Black Ball ship
That fourteen knots an hour* could clip.

You will surely find a rich gold mine
Just take a trip on the Black Ball line.

Just take a trip to Liverpool
To Liverpool, that Yankee school.

The Yankee sailors you'll see there
With their high-top boots and short-cut hair.

*I know. A knot is a rate of speed, and a knot an hour is bad
physics. Stan Hugill says that it was sung this way, though. RG
Recorded by LLoyd and MacColl- Haul On the Bowline.
RG

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!