This Cyril Tawney song is heavy in British Navy colloquialisms.
- Chicken on a raft: fried egg on toast, a tiresome, unpopular meal
- Jimmy: Jimmy-the-One, i.e. the first lieutenant
- Comic cuts: orders (from the WWI British Army jargon for Divisional Orders)
- Dabtoes: general able-bodied seamen
- Dustmen: engine room specialists, usually stokers
- Laugh like a drain: a UK phrase from around the time of WWII describing coarse, loud laughter at the discomfort of others.
- Middle & forenoon: two separate watch periods
- Pusser: purser, a notoriously frugal role
Tawney served in the navy for thirteen years, often aboard submarines.
This song was recorded as early as 1967 by The Young Tradition (Peter Bellamy, Royston Wood, and Heather Wood). Tawney recorded it for the 1990 album Sally Free and Easy. An easy-to-remember website has looped the song for prolonged enjoyment over the years.
Image from chickenonaraft.com