Marchetti Sovoia - Italian three engined bomber. Bill knows it's been transposed, but that comes under the heading of 'artistic licence', we had a laugh about it on the phone.

It detracts not in the slightest regarding the sincerity and purpose of this fine song though - as evidenced by Richard Hardaker's post above. I must admit it brought a tear to my eye when I heard it first time on the Humber's Brown Water double CD. The arrangement had an almost ethereal quality.

I pride myself on being aware of participants of WWII but I knew nothing about Royal Naval Patrol Service.

The 'double O' refers to degaussing coils which attempted to disguise the magnetic signature of the vessel and defeat the German magnetic mines.

For anyone who doesn't know, kai is a form of cocoa which was shaved off a big block - they still did it in 1969 at Dartmouth college!

I shall be proud to sing this song. I do it in D without a capo.