Except for GUEST 28 Jul 09's Marine father, I haven't noted any mention of "The Fireship" being sung during WW2.

The next notable appearance - or non-appearance - is on the sleeve of Oscar Brand's EP "Back-Room Ballads" (CMS-11), released in 1949. The song's title is on the sleeve (as track A-4), but the song isn't on the album!

Brand sang the first stanza and the chorus along with the Weavers on radio in 1949-50.

When Brand did record it, on the LP "Bawdy Songs and Back Room Ballads, Vol 1" (Audio-Fidelity AFLP-906) (1955), the version he sang was nearly identical to Frank Shay's, with a final verse reminiscent of Niles, Moore, and Wallgren's.

Other than a more sensible "clipper ship" in stanza one, the only notable difference is in the final lines:

"Listen all you sailor men
That sail upon the sea.
Beware of them there fireships;
One was the ruin of me.
Beware of them, steer clear of them,
They'll be the death of you.
'Twas there I had my mizzen sprung
And my strongbox broken through."


As the mast just aft of the mainmast, a "mizzen" is an odd spar to be metaphorically "sprung" (cracked or split) by a "fireship." (A mizzen can also be the lowest sail set on a mizzen mast.) These lines, then,   may have been fashioned by a landlubber.

Brand notes only, "This is what happens to all jolly lads who follow the sea eventually."

Brand failed to include "The Fireship" in his book of "Bawdy Songs and Back Room Ballads" (1960).