From Roy Palmer's introduction to "Boxing the Compass":-

"Note on Revised Edition
Thanks to this new edition, I have been able to make a number of corrections, additions and improvements to my original commentaries and notes. I have added four contemporary songs. Many more would have been possible but, quite apart from economic considerations, the book would have risked becoming unwieldy.
Among merchant seamen the forebitters of old appear to be long gone, replaced when seamen are at sea by the ubiquitous video. Until the 1970s, though, the old tradition of song lingered in fragments such as 'Packed my bag, packed my grip;/I'm not coming back next trip,/Bye, bye, Clan Line'; and this to the tune of Ewan McColl's 'Manchester Rambler';

I'm a tramp ship, I'm a tramp ship on no regular run;
I go wherever the cargoes may come.
I may be in Lagos on Sunday,
But they'll change it to Sydney come Monday.

There were longer pieces too, such as 'Shaw-Savill's Buccaneers (160), which Ron Baxter, a merchant seaman himself at the time, heard sung in 1972 by two ABs on the MV King James.

On the other hand, both ashore and afloat, ratings of the Royal navy, with their greater cohesion and cameraderie, continue to sing and make songs. Three new items come from this background. Two were written respectively by 'Shep' Wooley and 'Bernie' Bruen in 1973 when they were shipmates on HMS Blake. 'Ram it! I'm RDP' (161), true to its title, which means 'Stuff it! I'm leaving', expresses the euphoric feelings of a man about to bid farewell to the irksome restrictions of service life. By contrast, 'The Montague Whaler' (162) is a nostalgic lament at the supersession of a much-loved craft used in the navy for work and recreation. Both songs continue to be sung decades later, and in classic fashion, they have taken leave of their creators and assumed a life of their own, among sailors and landsmen.
'Swallow the Anchor' (163), by Tom Lewis, dates from 1989. It seems an appropriate choice to conclude the book, since the phrase which provides its title means to retire from the sea. The song goes beyond the nostalgic to attain an elegiac quality. Paradoxically, such farewells to shipmates and the sea may well provide inspiration for seafarers to come.

Roy Palmer
July 2001"

More of the material Ron Baxter collected at sea, further songs written by him and many contributions from others may be found in the PermaThread: Merchant Navy Songs.

Ross