Leeneia-

Thanks for the positive feedback.

"South with the Trade" is in the original poem and is indeed a shorthand reference to a particular Trade Wind, the Northeast prevailing wind in the southern hemisphere, from the Canary Islands to the "bump" of Brazil.

"The Old Orange Flute" and "Sweet Betsy from Pike" are certainly related but "Sweet Betsy" lacks the B-part, making it more monotonous, and has no minor chords.

I did query folks from the UK above on how to pronounce "Rotherhithe" and the response I got was that it sounded like "bother" and "lithe." I confess to lingering uncertainties and would hesitate to sing this song anywhere near Rotherhithe for fear of being stoned!

The original poem, as posted above, is much longer and I have certainly taken liberties in condensing it for singing. Someone else might choose to sing the whole poem, or choose different verses or lines. However, after reading the final lines of the original poem I knew where my song version had to go and what would be the chorus:

And I looked on my youth with its pleasure and pain,
And the shipmate I loved was beside me again ...
In a ship in a bottle a-sailing away
In the flying-fish weather through rainbows of spray,
Over oceans of wonder by headlands of gleam
To the harbours of youth on the wind of a dream!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble