Origins: 'My Ship Sailed from China'

Subject: Origins: 'Chinese Fan'/'My Ship Sailed from China'
From: seville
Date: 28 Apr 17 - 09:37 PM

Here's the first of several verses in "My Ship Sailed From China":

---
My ship sailed from China with a cargo of tea
All laden with treasures for you and for me
They brought me a fan, just imagine my bliss
When I fan myself gaily like this,
Like this, like this, like this
---

The oldest performance I've found on the net is from a Sharon, Lois, and Bram show in 1988:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE36lxjNtM8

And apparently the song was published in the "Jubilee Songbook" (1971) of the Girl Guides of Canada.   

If anyone has that songbook, it would be good to know if it points to any older source.

Thanks for any clues you can offer!

Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Ship Sailed from China'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Apr 17 - 11:06 PM

Hmmm. Sounds like a nicer version of My Aunt Came Back. There are lots of recordings on YouTube, but it's not in our Scout Songbook Index.

Here's a version that goes to the tune of "Sweet Betsy from Pike:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C37UYuAK_f4

I know I should be able to identify the tune from this one, but I can't, at least not today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCLgmTcxeu8

Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Ship Sailed from China'
From: seville
Date: 01 May 17 - 01:18 AM

The tune in Bella's video sounds like it's intended to be the same as the one in Sharon, Lois, and Bram's.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Ship Sailed from China'
From: GUEST,Don Lake
Date: 09 Mar 18 - 09:30 AM

My mother was singing this with her Girl Guide group as early as 1962

Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Ship Sailed from China'
From: Senoufou
Date: 09 Mar 18 - 01:26 PM

We sang it too, (late 1950's in the Girl Guides, W London) but the fourth line was,
"...when I found myself looking like this..."

Sorry, don't know about its origins.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Ship Sailed from China'
From: DaveRo
Date: 09 Mar 18 - 01:56 PM

Senoufou wrote: "...when I found myself looking like this..."

My wife agrees. She thinks she learned in at school (Lancashire, UK) in the 50s or 60s - not in the guides. Maybe either 'fanned' or 'found' is a mondegreen.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Ship Sailed from China'
From: Anne Lister
Date: 09 Mar 18 - 04:49 PM

I knew it as "when I found myself sailing like this", and the verse was repeated several times, but on each repeat there was a new action added. At first a fan with one hand, then both arms would cross and recross, then you would rock back and forward, then one leg would raise, then both ....We would of course be sitting on the floor at the time, so by the time both legs were going it would bring the song to a halt with the giggles. I learnt it in the Guides, in the 60s, and have since taught it to children I've worked with.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Ship Sailed from China'
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 10 Mar 18 - 07:09 PM

Yes, just like Anne and Senofou, we used to sing it as a campfire song in Girl Guides in Suffolk: I was in the GG from 1957 onwards, so it's certainly older than 1971!
Did all the actions as Anne describes, but think we sang, "when I found myself GOING like this, like this, like this, like this".

Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Ship Sailed from China'
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Mar 18 - 08:23 PM

Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Ship Sailed from China'
From: DaveRo
Date: 11 Mar 18 - 06:12 AM

This is a version on the website http://laurascampfiresongbook.webs.com/actionsongs.htm (doesn't work on my mobile device).

My Ship Sailed From China

My ship sailed from China with a cargo of tea
All laden with presents for you and for me
They bought me a fan just imagine my bliss
When I found myself sailing like this, like this, like this, like this
Back to beginning

The actions for this are very simple, everyone sits on the floor in a circle with their legs stretched out in front of them, you sing it through once then when it's repeated you wave your right arm, then the next time it's your left arm. You sing it through 6 times in total:
Normal,
Right arm,
Left arm,
Right leg,
Left leg,
Nod your head.

Laura writes on her website "I'm a Rainbow Leader from England, but I've just moved to Texas!" (That was in 2010 I think.)

Did the English version, which certainly dates from the '60s or earlier, also iterate through the presents (fan, brush, etc) like the video in the OP?

Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Ship Sailed from China'
From: Anne Lister
Date: 12 Mar 18 - 05:37 PM

In answer to the question above, DaveRo, I don't remember changing the presents, just the actions.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Ship Sailed from China'
From: GUEST,Ann Atkins
Date: 06 Mar 21 - 06:12 PM

My great-aunt taught me this in the 50's, although I think we also sang it in the Brownies or Guides.

I remember there were different presents and the action built up.
I remember the fan (with one hand)
I think there was a rocking horse or something similar (rocking backwards and forwards while waving the imaginary fan).
It finished with a cuckoo-clock (everyone singing cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo)

Subject: RE: Origins: 'My Ship Sailed from China'
From: GUEST
Date: 15 May 22 - 06:20 AM

We said daily not gaily because gay was too much for 8 year olds in 1994, funnily enough, I'm a dude now