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Fire In The Foretop (Collected by Edith Fowke)

There is fire in the lower hold,
There's fire down below,
Fire in the main well,
The captain didn't know.

There is fire in the forepeak,
Fire in the main,
Fire in the windlass,
Fire in the chain.

There is fire in the lower hold,
There's fire down below,
Fire in the main well,
The captain didn't know.

There is fire in the foretop,
Fire down below,
Fire in the chain-plates,
The bosun didn't know.

There is fire in the lower hold,
There's fire down below,
Fire in the main well,
The captain didn't know.

There is fire up aloft,
There is fire down below,
Fire in the galley,
The cook he didn't know.

There is fire in the lower hold,
There's fire down below,
Fire in the main well,
The captain didn't know.
There's fire down below.

####.... Author unknown. Variant of a traditional sea shanty collected by William H. Smith and Fenwick Hatt and published on p.39 in Sea Songs And Ballads From Nineteenth Century Nova Scotia, edited by Edith Fowke (FolkLorica Press, New York, NY, 1940). Also collected as Fire Down Below on a sound recording from William H. Smith of Liverpool, Queens County, Nova Scotia by Helen Creighton [1899-1989] ....####

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