• Song Database
  • Albums
  • Print Collections
  • External Links
Mainsail Café / Songs / Fire Down Below

Fire Down Below

(Fire! Fire!)

Suggest changes Random song
Lyrics
Information
Melody
Share

The joke, in Colcord's variant, lay in choosing non-flammable portions of the ship in which to locate his imaginary fire (except, of course, the cook's galley-- the kitchen always had its cooking fire).

Direct link:

Temporarily disabled. Sorry. Please use the contact form in the sidebar.

There is fire in the lower hold, there's fire down below
Fire in the mainwell, the captain didn't know
Ch: Fire! Fire!
Fire down below.
It's fetch a bucket of water, girls,
There's fire down below
!

There is fire in the fore-top, fire in the main,
Fire in the windlass and fire in the chain.

There is fire in the fore-peak, fire down below,
Fire in the chain-plates, the bosun didn't know.

There is fire up aloft, there's fire down below,
Fire in the galley, the cook he didn't know.

From Roll and Go by Joanna Carver Colcord (1924)

Metadata

DT Index: 2020, 2021
Heaving shanty, Pump shanty

Selected recordings:

Short Sharp Shanties, Vol. 1 Various artists
Heart Of Oak! The X-Seamen's Institute
Sole Mates Fisherman's Friends
The Stories and Shanties of Hjalmar Rutzebeck Various artists

Explore similar songs

  • Le Grand Coureur Heaving shanty
  • Pump Shanty Pump shanty
  • Susiana Heaving shanty
  • There She Blows! Forecastle song
  • Leave Her, Johnny Capstan shanty
Mainsail Café, 2025 Contact