Hi Greyeyes!

"The Leaving of Liverpool" is a very interesting song and - no nonsense here - may be less English in its origins than one might assume at first. First, it seems only to have been collected in America... at Sailors Snug Harbor on Staten Island in New York City. Ewan MacColl, who was the first to record it commercially, got it from William Main Doerflinger's book, Shantymen and Shantyboys. For another it has the same melody as and a number of the textual components of an old Irish immigration song, "My Darling When I Think of You" or "The Leavibg of Limerick." (Thank you, Tom!) I am in no position to know which came first, however. The David Crockett, as stated in the song, was an American clipper that was in Liverpool often (and in Cork on at least one occasion) but its main run was New York - San Francisco.

I apologise for the aside... now back to the English tradition...

All the best,
Dan