Thanks for the U.S. text, GerryM.

Here are the first stanza and the chorus of the cadet song, from "Fag-Ends from the Naval Academy" (1878):


Come listen to my song,
I'll not detain you long,
It's all about a cruise of yore, sir.
How we left our native shore,
Which some twice had done before,
And together over ocean did wander.

Cho.:- Then it's all for the stripes,
       The nobby, nobby stripes,
    It's all for the stripes and the diamonds,
       That we leave our native shore
       To roam again once more,
    And across the western ocean to wander.

The hoped-for "stripes and diamonds" were the sleeve insignia of a "first-class midshipman," the highest cadet rank.

And the phrase "the western ocean" implies that the parodied original was from a British source.