IT'S THE SAME THE WHOLE WORLD OVER - Royal Navy Version It's the same the whole world over, There are those that take the blame, There are those who take the pleasure. Ain't it all a crying shame. She was just a Dockyard daughter, Living there by the Dockyard gate. For her father was the master, And this song''s about her fate. When she was eight she wore blue ribbons, As she waved the ships good bye, And she prayed each Naval sailor Would be safe up on that tide. At eighteen she was a beauty, Golden hair and shining eyes, Still she waved with her blue ribbons, Such a sight that damps the eyes. But one day from down in Dartmouth, There came a lad to catch her eye. And when he smiled she was in heaven, But when he spoke it was naught but lies. He looked so smart in his tailored blue suit, with gleaming rings upon the cuff. And she dreamed she'd be his lady, But, for him she was naught but fluff. Many times he said he loved her, Made her think they'd married be. But, well brought up she made him tarry, Until together they'd married be. Then one day the storm clouds gathered, His desire he could ne'er restrain, As he tore her clothes from off her, So he stole away her name. Then up to the Dockyard Adm'ral, Her father went to make her claim. But, of his son this dour old codger, Would not hear a word in blame. But, what was worse that boy he boasted, Told them all she was on the game. And to their shame the men believed him. They all said, she'd herself to blame. Well as the spring passed into summer, And her girth, it thickened out. Not one Jack would would look upon her, Without a leer or a bawdy shout. So there we have this dockyard daughter, Cast from fame to gutter trash. She'd behaved as her father taught her, She couldn't face the sailors wrath. Then one night so dark and stormy, She threw herself to a watery plight. And on the dark black dockyard water, Floated ribbons so blue and bright. And they say, that when they found her, And the water from her clothes was wrung, That her last words,were for the sailors, Despite the wrongs that they had done. When the men heard all about it. Then they knew they were to blame, For in their fun they had forgotten, There's no truth in a liar's claim. Now when your ship's in Pompey harbor, And its berthed on the Northern quay, If the night is dark and stormy, You take care of what you see. For she stands on that quay at midnight, As the clouds scud past the moon, Dressed in white with bright blue ribbons, She beckons you to share her doom. For she searches for her sailor, Hoping still to win his eye. Hoping still he's come to woo her, To shed a tear because he lied. -from the song collection of James Living

(ADDENDUM) Spalpeens were labouring men--reapers, mowers, potato-diggers, etc.--who travelled about in the autumn seeking employment from the farmers, each with his spade, or his scythe, or his reaping-hook. They congregated in the towns on market and fair days, where the farmers of the surrounding districts came to hire them. Each farmer brought home his own men, fed them on good potatoes and milk, and put them to sleep in the barn on dry straw--a bed--as one of them said--'a bed fit for a lord, let alone a spalpeen'" This same 'Cranbally Farmer'--the man himself--"was well known in the district sixty years ago as a great old skinflint; and the song drew down on him universal ridicule". The Spalpeen's Complaint Of The Cranbally Farmer One evening of late as I happened to stray, To the county Tipp'rary, I straight took my way, To dig the potatoes and work by the day, I hired with a Cranbally farmer. I asked him how far we were bound for to go. The night it was dark, and the north winds did blow. I was hungry and tired and my spirits were low, I had neither whiskey nor porter. He made me no answer but mounted his steed, To the Cranbally mountains we posted with speed; I said to meself that my poor heart would bleed To be trodging behind that old nagger. When we entered his kitchen, I entered it first; It seemed like a kennel or a ruined old church: Says I to meself, "I am left in the lurch, Here in the house of old Darby O’Leary." I well recollect it was Michaelmas night, To an awful bad supper he did me invite, A cup of sour milk that would physic a snipe— Your stomach ‘twould put in disorder. 'Twas in that old miser I looked with a frown, When the straw was brought in for to make my shakedown. I wish I had never seen Cranbally town, Or the sky over Darby O’Leary. I worked in Kilcolum, I worked in Kilmore, I worked in Knockbrack and in Shanballymore. In Pallas-a-Nicker and Sollohodmore, With decent, respectable farmers. I worked in Tipperary, the Rag, and Rosegreen, I worked in Knockainey and the Bridge of Aleen, But such woeful starvation I’ve never yet seen, As I got from Darby O’Leary.

The Frozen Logger As I set down one evening in a timber town cafe A six foot-seven waitress, to me these words did say "I see you are a logger and not a common bum For no one but a logger stirs his coffee with his thumb "My lover was a logger, there's none like him today If you'd sprinkle whisky on it, he'd eat a bale of hay He never shaved the whiskers from off his horny hide But he'd pound 'em in with a hammer, then bite 'em off inside "My lover came to see me one freezing winter day He held me in a fond embrace that broke three vertebrae He kissed me when we parted so hard it broke my jaw And I could not speak to tell him he'd forgot his mackinaw "I watched my logger lover going through the snow A-sauntering gaily homeward at forty eight below The weather tried to freeze him, it tried it's level best At a hundred degrees below zero, he buttoned up his vest "It froze clean down to China, it froze to the stars above At one thousand degrees below zero it froze my logger love They tried in vain to thaw him and if you'll believe me, sir They made him into ax blades to chop the Douglas fir "That's how I lost my lover and to this caffay I come And here I wait till someone stirs his coffee with his thumb And then I tell my story of my love they could not thaw Who kissed me when we parted so hard he broke my jaw"