I Saw Three Ships

A ship in Aberdeen, 1666. The oldest dated lines like it are Scottish. In 1666 the printer John Forbes of Aberdeen brought out the second edition of Cantus, Songs and Fancies, part-songs "as is taught by Thomas Davidson, in the Musick-School of Aberdene" ^[2][3]. Near the end is a piece for three voices that begins "All sones of Adam, rise up with me". It tells of Gabriel's greeting to Mary, and then: "There comes a ship far sailing then, Saint Michel was the stieres-man", with Saint John sitting "in the horn", Our Lord harping, Our Lady singing, and "all the bells of heaven" ringing "On Christs Sunday at morn" ^[2][3]. The Oxford Book of Carols and the Ballad Index both count it as an early version of this carol ^[19][20].

Sandys, 1833. The carol is not among the eight in Davies Gilbert's West Country carol book of 1822, nor the twenty in his second edition of 1823 ^[5][6]. William Sandys (1792 to 1874), a London solicitor and antiquary, printed it in his Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern, a book that promised "the most popular in the West of England, and the airs to which they are sung" ^[4][28][29]. On pages 112 and 113 he gives nine verses ^[4]. At the back of the book is the air, tune No. 9, "I Saw Three Ships", in G major and 3/4 time, with dotted rhythms over a bass line ^[4]. In his notes Sandys quoted the Aberdeen ship verse from Ritson and mentioned a printed sheet carol, "very similar", with "Joseph and his 'fair lady'" in the ships ^[4].

The sheets and the singers. The Victorian carol editor William Henry Husk (1814 to 1887) wrote that the carol turned up "under various forms, in nearly every collection of sheet carols", The Sunny Bank among the most printed ^[7][9][8]. His Songs of the Nativity gives nine verses close to Sandys's and, at the back, a tune headed "On Christmas Day in the Morning", in A major and 6/8 time, harmonised in four parts ^[7]. It is the tune we sing, note for note and in the same rhythm as Bramley and Stainer printed it ten years later, a tone higher. It is also the Sandys air in a new rhythm: six-eight for three-four, and the same notes but one ^[7][11][4]. In 1911 Cecil Sharp printed three versions sung in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, as As I Sat on a Sunny Bank ^[10][19].

Stainer's setting, 1878. Christmas Carols New and Old, edited by the Rev. Henry Ramsden Bramley and John Stainer, came out in series from Novello in London ^[16][18]. The first series of twenty carols appeared in 1867 ^[13][1], and a second, Nos. 21 to 42, in November 1870 ^[14][15][18]. I Saw Three Ships came in the third. On 1 October 1878 Novello advertised that series as ready on 15 October, Nos. 43 to 68, with "64. I saw three ships ... Arrd. by J. Stainer" ^[16]. The Musical Times of 1 November 1878 listed it among Novello's publications of the past month and reviewed it ^[17][18]. In the later complete edition, No. 64 fills pages 164 and 165, marked "Briskly": the tune in G major and 6/8 time for four voices on two staves, then a second tune, "Or this (in 3 parts)", with verses 2 to 9 printed below ^[11]. Its index gives the words as "Traditional" and the air as "Traditional (Derbyshire). Harm. by J. S." ^[11][19].

Which year? The Oxford Book of Carols (1928) dates the Bramley and Stainer printing 1871, but the illustrated edition of 1871 ends at No. 42 ^[19][12][18]. The Dictionary of National Biography (1912) dates the whole book 1884 ^[27]. Husk's undated book is catalogued 1884 in the copies we read, but the Dictionary of National Biography dates it 1868, as does the Oxford Book of Carols; the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology says 1867 or 1868, and the Hymnology Archive's list 1866 ^{[7][8][19][9][18]}.

Myth and record. Often told: the ship verse was sung "about the middle of the 16th century". Sandys wrote that, and Husk and Sharp repeated it ^[4][7][10]. What the record shows: their source, Joseph Ritson in 1794, said only that the pieces at the end of the Aberdeen book were "conjectured" to have been sung by country people at Christmas "before the reformation" ^[3]. The earliest dated printing of the lines is 1666 ^[2][20].

Often told: the three ships stand for the ships that carried the bones of the Magi, the three kings, to Cologne. The Penguin Book of Carols (1999), edited by a St Andrews professor of cultural and spiritual history, suggested that the ships carried the Magi's relics, or the Magi themselves; we know this from the Ballad Index's report, not the book ^[20][21]. A 2024 BBC Music Magazine feature links the carol to the relics' journey to Cologne ^[22]. What the record shows: Cologne Cathedral says Archbishop Rainald of Dassel had the relics brought from Milan to Cologne in 1164; the Catholic Encyclopedia gives 1163, and the 2024 feature says 1162 ^[23][24][22]. None of the printings above puts the kings in the ships. Their passengers are Christ and Mary, or Joseph and Mary ^{[4][7][10][11]}.

Verses 1 to 3. The singer sees three ships come in on Christmas Day and asks what was in them. The answer in our source, Bramley and Stainer's No. 64, is "The Virgin Mary and Christ were there" ^[11]. Sandys has "Our Saviour Christ and his lady" instead, the only line whose words differ ^[4][19]. "Our Lady" is a name for the Virgin Mary, as in the Aberdeen verse, where "our Lady sang" ^[31][2].

Verses 4 and 5. "Pray, whither sailed those ships": where did they sail to? ^[30] They sailed into Bethlehem. Bethlehem stands on a hill ridge about five miles south of Jerusalem, far from any sea, and the Bible's Christmas stories have no ships in them ^{[25][26][32][20]}. The carol does not mind. Husk joked that to learn how two people filled three ships, readers should ask the explainers of miracles, or the Court Newsman, who reported the Queen going to the theatre in six carriages ^[7].

Verses 6 to 9. All the bells on earth ring, all the angels in heaven sing, and all the souls on earth sing. The last verse asks everyone to "rejoice amain", with all their strength ^[30].

It is a carol for Christmas Day itself: its verses end "On Christmas day in the morning", or close to it, in every version printed here ^[4][7][10]. In the nineteenth century it was sold on single printed sheets, often on the same sheet as God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen and The Seven Joys of Mary ^[7][19]. Sharp's first version came from a former resident of Wotton-under-Edge, in Gloucestershire, who sang it as the village children had sung it many years before ^[10].

Our arrangement is set from No. 64 in the complete edition of Bramley and Stainer ^[11]. That copy is undated, and its title page names "Sir John Stainer", so it was printed after he was knighted ^[11][27]. We sing verses 1, 2, 3 and 9, in G as printed: the ships, the question, the answer, and the call to rejoice. The soprano sings the tune, and the alto, tenor and bass are adapted from Stainer's harmony.

• As I Sat on a Sunny Bank. The usual sheet version: the singer sits on a sunny bank, sees three ships "come sailing by", and finds Joseph and his fair lady aboard; "he did whistle, and she did sing" ^[7][10][19].
• As I Sat Under a Sycamore Tree. Husk's Kentish version, in which the singer looks out upon the sea and sees three ships that bear "The Virgin Mary and Christ" ^[7][20].
• As I Sat by My Old Cottage Door. Words that Mr. Grimmet sang to Cecil Sharp at Shipston-on-Stour, which bring in the Passion ^[10][19].

• Soprano: the tune, most often on A, then G, reaching its top D twice a verse, on the "sail-" of "sailing" in verse 1. After each breath the pickup ("I", "And", "The", "Then") comes in a semiquaver late on the low D, so take the breath and still land on the next G with the others.
• Alto: under the tune all the way, mostly a third below it and otherwise mostly a sixth, most often on F-sharp. Each verse opens on its low B for three notes ("I saw three"), and its top G comes on the "Christ-" of the first "Christmas" in each half.
• Tenor: the middle of the chord, never above the alto, most often on A. Each verse starts and ends on its low D, on the first three notes and on "morning", and it climbs to its top C on the "mas day" of the first "Christmas day" in each half.
• Bass: the bass line, almost all G and D. Its one sharp note, the low F-sharp, comes only on the "morn-" of each verse's last "morning", rising to G on "ing".