Presumably the dying man expected to be dressed in his trusty jacket and buried in an ordinary coffin .

As collected, versions with "tarpaulin jacket" omit the stanza about the tombstones, but not all sailors die at sea.


Several broadside printers turned out earlier realted songs. Here are the two earliest antecedents, both of which contain the "tarpaulin jacket" line and the funeral with sailor pallbearers. One or the other seems to have inspired the better-known song:

Bodleian, Harding B25 (1594), printed by Angus, Newcastle, "between 1774 and 1825." The reference to wishing the wars over implies a date of 1815 or earlier.

                     A New Song, Called
                     THE RAKISH YOUNG FELLOW

I am a rakish young fellow,
Never took care in my life,
I rambled the country all over,
In every town I had a fresh wife.
Give me the Girl that will love me,
And bless me through this happy life,
That will dance to me a dutch caper,
A country girl for a wife.

I have sail'd in stormy bad weather,
I have sail'd in both hot and cold,
I have sail'd the ocean all over
I ventured my life for gold.
I wish the wars were all over
And myself safe on the shore,
And God bless me for ever and ever,
If I go to sea any more.

I will send for my friends and relations
I will send for them every one,
All for to make them quite welcome
I will send for a cask of good rum.
I will send for a cask fo [sic] the best geneva,
And two or three barrels of beer,
For to welcome the ladies
That meet me on Sunderland pier.

When I am dead and buried
There was an end of my life,
Do not be sighing nor sobbing
But do a good turn for my wife.
Do not be sobbing nor sighing,
But one single favour I crave,
[Do wrap?] me in my Tarpawling jacket,
And fiddle and dance to my grave.

Get six bold sailors to carry me,
And let them be all very drunk,
[As?] they are reeling along let them
All tumble down with my trunk.
Let them be dancing and capering,
Like men just [going?] mad,
And drink a glass [illegible] my [illegible],
[Saying here?][Illegible].


Bodleian Harding B25 (1883), published by Pitts, Seven Dials, "between 1819 and 1844":

                     TARPAULING JACKET

I am a young jolly brisk sailor,
Delights in all manner of sport,
When I'm in liquor I'm mellow,
The girls I then merrily court.
But love is surrounded with trouble,
And put such strange thoughts in my head,
Is is [sic] not a terrible story,
That love it should strike me stone dead.

Have not I been in stormy weather,
Have not I been in heat and in cold,
Have not I been with many a brave fellow
That has ventur'd his honour for gold.
But now the wars are all over,
And I am safe landed on shore,
The devil shall have me forever,
If ever I enter any more.

Some where is the girl that will love me,
And lay with me this very night,
Come jig it away with the fiddle,
A country dance or hornpipe.
Let the weakest not go with the strongest,
But let them be equally yok'd,
For the strongest will last out the longest,
The jacket ne'er values the stroke.

Here's health to my friends and acquaintances
When death for me it doth come
And let them behave in their station,
And send me a cask of good rum.
Let it be good royal stingo,
With three barrels of beer,
To make my friends the more welcome,
When they meet me at derry down fair.

Let there be six sailors to carry me,
Let them be damndable drunk,
And as they are going to bury me,
Let them fall down with my trunk.
Let there be no sighing or sobbing,
But one single favor I crave,
Take me up in a tarpauling jacket,
And fiddle and dance to my grave.

The line, "The jacket ne'er values [i.e., cares about] the stroke [of the lash]" sounds like either a real or a would-be proverb.

The earliest version of "Wrap Me up in my ... Jacket" would thus seem to have been about a sailor, with the soldiers' version coming later.

Baseless conjecture: Herman Melville was thinking of one of these songs when he wrote "White-Jacket" (1850), though the connection - the unusual preciousness of the jacket to the hero - is tenuous at best.

The Bodleian appears to have no broadside text of "Wrap Me up in my Tarpaulin/ Old-Stable Jacket." How about the Madden Collection?

[Joe, you might combine this one with the earlier "Tarpaulin Jacket" thread]