I Saw Three Ships

"I Saw Three Ships (Come Sailing In)" is a traditional and popular Christmas carol and folk song from England, listed as number 700 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The earliest printed version of "I Saw Three Ships" is from the 17th century, possibly Derbyshire, and was also published by William Sandys in 1833. The song was probably traditionally known as "As I Sat On a Sunny Bank", and was particularly popular in Cornwall.
Lyrics.
The lyrics mention the ships sailing into Bethlehem, but the nearest body of water is the Dead Sea about away. The reference to three ships is thought to originate in the three ships that bore the purported relics of the Biblical magi to Cologne Cathedral in the 12th century. Another possible reference is to Wenceslaus II, King of Bohemia, who bore a coat of arms "Azure three galleys argent". Another suggestion is that the ships are actually the camels used by the Magi, as camels are frequently referred to as "ships of the desert". Here is a typical version of the lyrics, printed in Birmingham between 1813 and 1838:As I sat on a sunny bank,
A sunny bank, a sunny bank,
As I sat on a sunny bank
On Christmas-Day in the morning.
I spy'd three ships come sailing by,
Come sailing by, come sailing by,
I spy'd three ships come sailing by
On Christmas-Day in the morning.
And who should be with these three ships,
With these three ships, with these three ships,
And who should be with these three ships
But Joseph and his Fair Lady.
O he did whistle, she did sing,
And all the bells on earth did ring
For joy that our Saviour Christ he was born
On Christmas-Day in the morning.
Traditional recordings and collected versions.
Countless traditional versions of the song have been collected. Many different melodies were used, as is typical of traditional folk songs including Christmas carols. In the 1910s, the English folklorists Cecil Sharp and Janet Blunt noted the tunes and lyrics of dozens of versions, primarily in the south of England.
Several traditional recordings have been made of the song The American folk song collector James Madison Carpenter recorded several slightly different English versions in the early 1930s, all of which can be heard online via the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, several recorded in Cornwall and one in Gloucestershire. In 1956, Peter Kennedy recorded a man named John Thomas singing the song in Camborne, Cornwall.
The famous Appalachian musician Jean Ritchie was recorded by Alan Lomax in 1949 singing a traditional version learnt from her Kentucky family (whose ancestors seemingly brought the song from England), which can be heard courtesy of the Alan Lomax archive. Ritchie later recorded the song on her album 'Carols of All Seasons' (1959). Whilst Jean Ritichie's family version is the only traditional American version to be recorded, the song was known to be present in the United States in previous decades, particularly in the south.
Whilst collecting folk songs in the British Isles in 1952, Jean Ritchie and her husband George Pickow encountered the Irish traditional singer Elizabeth Cronin in Macroom, Co. Cork, who sang a version called "The Bells of Heaven".
Arrangements.
An arrangement by Martin Shaw appears in the "Oxford Book of Carols". The "Carols for Choirs" series of carol books features arrangements of the carol by both Sir David Willcocks and John Rutter. Organist Simon Preston and former conductor of the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, Sir Philip Ledger, have also written arrangements that the choir have performed at the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in recent years. There is also a more recent choral arrangement by British composer Richard Fox. This carol is also featured in the musical "Caroline, or Change", but as a counterpoint. Adapted by Jon Schmidt on "Jon Schmidt Christmas" album. John Renbourn has arranged it (in a rather free adaptation) for guitar. The song appears on Nat King Cole's 1960 album "The Magic of Christmas" (l/k/a "The Christmas Song"), arranged by Ralph Carmichael.