Another modern version. It is sung by Hank Cramer on his album "The Shantyman."

Pretty good for a rewrite, but the final stanza makes the Alabama sound more like a submarine than a surface vessel!


In eighteen hundred sixty-one,
Roll, Alabama, roll!
The Civil War had just begun,
Oh, roll, Alabama, roll!

At Birkenhead her keel was laid....
Her hull of the finest oak was made....

In sixty-two she sallied forth....
To destroy the commerce of the North....

It was many the Yankee prize she seized....
To become the terror of the seas....

In a port in France in sixty-four....
For to give her crew some leave ashore....

Up sailed the little Kearsarge to say....
"You're a fightin' ship, come fight with me!"

They sallied forth for a fight at sea....
The pride of the North and the South Navee....

At the three-mile limit they fought that day....
Alabama's stern was shot away....

It was many the sailor met his doom....
When she sank into her watery tomb....

Off of Cherbourg, France, in sixty-four....
The Alabama rose no more....