The Bold Princess Royal

(The Fair Princess Royal; The Fourteenth of February)

Stan Hugill says this song dates from the 1600s-1700s, when the English Channel was infested with pirates and privateers. Joanna Colcord dates it to the American War for Independence or shortly before. The song has been especially popular on the eastern coast of England, though Alan Lomax collected it in Michigan in 1938 as part of the Irish-American folk repertoire.

The seaports mentioned differ in nearly every version. Hugill attributes this to the folk process. In his version, for example, the Princess Royal is bound to Newfoundland; coming from fair London through Callao, Peru. His provided tune also matches that of the John Bunyan hymn "Immortal, Invisible".

Peter Bellamy's version here was learned from the singing of "Bob Bayfield, a retired fisherman of Wells-Next-The-Sea" with two verses added later from Sam Larner's recording.

This song is featured in Ralph Vaughn Williams march Sea Songs arranged in 1923 (originally as a movement of his English Folk Song Suite).