lyrics include reference to a sailor coming home to England from Hong Kong, as well as meeting a girl on "Winchester Street." Early recordings Many recordings were made in the first half of the twentieth century of former sailors singing the shanty. Percy Grainger recorded a man named Tom Roberts in Chelsea, London singing a version in 1908, which can be heard online via the British Library Sound Archive. The folklorist James Madison Carpenter made recordings of the song in England, Scotland and Wales in the early 1930s, all of which are available on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Helen Hartness Fladers recorded several versions sung by former sailors in the 1940s in New England, whilst Helen Creighton recorded several Nova Scotian versions in the 1940s and 50s. Lyrics Like most chanties of this type, "Blow the Man Down" was sung to a flexible combination of customary verses, floating verses from within the general chanty repertoire, and verses improvised in the moment or peculiar to individual singers. The song was of indefinite length, and created by supplying solo verses to an invariable two-part refrain. The structure is as follows: Solo verse couplets documented to have been sung to "Blow the Man Down" include the following from sailors of the 19th century. Another version An article by Felix Riesenberg, who trained and served as an officer in the Merchant Marine in the 1890s, depicts earlier sailors singing these plainer work lyrics not specifically about the Black Ball line. The men are raising the topsail on a merchant ship to get under sail from New York to Liverpool, with the chantey led by a sailor named Jimmie: References in popular Culture An offbeat version of the song is sung by the officers and crew of the USS Stingray led by Lieutenant Commander Tom Dodge (Kelsey Grammer) in the 1996 film Down Periscope as they arrange the transfer of Lieutenant Martin Pascal (Rob Schneider) off the ship and make him walk the plank. References External links Lyrics Alternate lyrics British folk songs Sea shanties Songs about oceans and seas Songs about sailors Burl Ives songs The Muppets songs Songs about Liverpool English folk songs English children's songs Traditional children's songs