I sang this song in the playground at primary school in Stockport in the early 60s.
We would gather anyone whovwanted to play by walking around the playground chanting "all join on if you want to play 'The Big Ship Sails'.
We all got in a line holding hands. The person at the end put their hand against the wall. The person at the other end led the line under the arm of the person at the wall. They would then go round again leading the line under each persons arm in turn in the line. This resulted in each person having to turn around and their arms would be crossed. Once all arms were crossed the two ends would join to make a circle as we all faced inwards (a bit of a difficult manoeuvre). We continued to sing thd first verse. We would still be holding hands with our arms crossed as we would then shake them up and down. We would sing the second verse and shake our heads the third verse we'd shake our arms up and down. For the last verse we would dip our heads.
The big ship sails on the alley alley o
The alley alley o (×2)
The big ship sails on the alley alley o
on the last day of September.

The captain said this will never never do
Never never do (×2)
The captain said this will never never do
on the last day of September.

The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea
Bottom of the sea (×2)
The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea
on the last day of September.

We all dip our heads in the deep blue sea
Deep blue sea(×2)
We all dip our heads in the deep blue sea
on the last day of September.