Girl Friday send this version of the lyrics, plus a terrific MP3 of a recording by Mudcatter Mumblin Len. Mumblin Len sings this unaccompanied, having got it from the Redd Sullivan version on an LP his dad had.. About the song, Girl Friday says

I learned it when I was a kid from my fathers record collection, so have no idea who wrote it. I suspect that verse two should probably read 'Twenty four fires', as sixty-four seems a trifle excessive.

Firing the Mauretania
(Mauretania Coaling Shanty)

In Nineteen Hundred and Twenty four,
Found myself on Liverpool's workhouse floor
So I went to the Cunard' office door,
Got a jab on the Mauretania.

A - firing the Mauretania,
She surely is a slaver,
Tae hell wi' the Mauretania.

Mauretania stokehold's a wunnerful sight,
Sixty - four fires all burnin' bright,
But you'll shovel the coal morn, noon, and night,
A firing the Mauretania.

The coal were hard and full of slate,
And that's what finished the Four 'til Eight.
Yes,that's what finished the Four 'til Eight.
A firing the Mauretania.

The Eight to Twelve they was better men,
But they's worn out and weary by half past ten,
So worn out and weary by half past ten,
From firing the Mauretania.

Port fans went down and the fires wouldn't draw,
And that's what knackered the twelve til four
Yes, that's what knackered the twelve til four
A firing the Mauretania.

So come all you young stokers and listen to me
That Cunard ship's Bloody Purgatory,
So stick to the coast, don't run deep - sea,
You'll be firing the Mauretania.

---

Click to play