"Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" is an American patriotic song which was popular in the United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Composed 1843, it was long used as an unofficial national anthem of the United States, in competition with other songs. Under the title "Three Cheers for the Red, White, and Blue," the song is mentioned in Chapter IX of MacKinlay Kantor's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Andersonville (1955). It was also featured in the 1957 musical The Music Man. In 1969, "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" was the music performed by a U.S. Navy Band embarked aboard USS Hornet as one of the ship's helicopters recovered the Apollo 11 astronauts from their capsule named Columbia after a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. The melody of "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" is identical to that of the British patriotic song "Britannia, the Pride of the Ocean" and there is disagreement as to which song was adapted from the other. History The origins and authorship of "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" have been the source of some uncertainty. It is believed that Thomas A'Becket, Sr., a British musician and longtime resident of Philadelphia who performed at that city's Chestnut Street Theater, wrote the lyrics – and possibly the melody – at the request of David Shaw for the latter's performance at a benefit concert, probably in the autumn of 1843. That year, the copyright for the song was registered by the Philadelphia publishing house of George Willig under the name "Columbia, the Land of the Brave". Shaw subsequently published the song under his own name, though A'Becket later claimed sole authorship and presented an original handwritten composition as proof. The song invokes the historic informal name "Columbia" for the United States and borrows and modifies the phrase "land of the free and the home of the brave" from Francis Scott Key's earlier "Star-Spangled Banner" as "the home of the brave and the free". "Britannia, the Pride of the Ocean" There has been some controversy as to whether "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" is an appropriation of a similar, British patriotic song, "Britannia, the Pride of the Ocean", or whether the latter song is, in fact, an appropriation of "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean". Both songs have occasionally been referred to by the alternate name "The Red, White and Blue". In a 1919 analysis of