Thanks bodad. Of course! "Go down Moses" is the other great song with the phrase. How could that one have slipped my mind ? I think I will go along with Bee-dubya's sensible view, which clears that one up for me nicely.

Leeneia, "Go down Hannah" is from a version of the 12-bar "Ain't no more cane on the Brazos", which I used to know a long time back. I see the DT also has a verse :- "I looked at my Hannah and she's turning red,/ I looked at my podner and he's almos dead."

Dave, I'm quite sure RMs wore red and had army ranks, and were there to suppress mutiny as well as defend the ship. Mind you, I'm mainly going on Patrick O'Brien for this. Bet there's heaps of threads on this too. If redcoats, then that would also lessen the likehood of BBR being British, as there weren't RN shanties as such.

Aargh! Beware the Creeping Thread Jim lad.

Bubblyrat, I only came across this fairly recently myself. I was doing a bit of research on Portsmouth, and came across a contemporary quote (I think by a civilian) where the garrison soldiers were called Johnnies. If you really really want I shall dig it up for you.

Many thanks to all of you for answering.