I have been known to sing this, and like Pip have wondered what on earth the "younger brother" has to do with it.

Another anomaly in the "Dolphin" version is that a ship having orders "to sink and destroy" is sailing from the commercial port of Liverpool, not from a naval base. (The captain in the "Warlike Seamen" version also claims to have sailed from Liverpool but is apparently lying, as verse 1 has the ship lying at Spithead.)

I have myself folk processed (at least) one word. I don't know what colours a French ship would have carried in the 1700s, but latterly they would gave been red, white and blue. I therefore sing "We've hoisted our red white and blue.

Richard