> Maddy Prior > Songs > I Saw Three Ships
I Saw Three Ships / As I Sat on a Sunny Bank
[
Roud 700
; Ballad Index OBB104
; VWML LEB/9/392/6
; Bodleian
Roud 700
; GlosTrad
Roud 700
; Wiltshire
1148
; trad.]
Lucy E. Broadwood, J.A. Fuller Maitland: English County Songs Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians
Charlie Bate and others sang I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In in 1957 in the live Christmas Day broadcast on BBC Radio, Sing Christmas and the Turn of the Year.
John Thomas of Camborne, Cornwall sang As I Sat on a Sunny Bank in a recording made by Peter Kennedy in the 1950s. It was included on the anthology Songs of Ceremony (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 9; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1970).
Roy and Val Bailey sang I Saw Three Ships in 1968 on their album of children’s songs with Leon Rosselson, Oats & Beans & Kangaroos.
Maggie Goodall and Sue Harris sang I Saw Three Ships in 1986 on the anthology Yuletracks.
Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band sang I Saw Three Ships on their 1991 CD Carols and Capers, 1992 maxi single I Saw Three Ships, 1998 CD Carols at Christmas, and 2005 DVD An Evening of Carols and Capers.
Incantation sang I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing By on their 1995 album Songs for the Season.
Nowell Sing We Clear sang I Saw Three Ships in 1995 on their CD Hail Smiling Morn. They noted:
We loved this ‘Crawn’ version of the widespread carol I Saw Three Ships on first sight. It was collected in 1895 from a Humber estuary boatman on the east coast of England, and ultimately published by Baring-Gould in his Garland of Country Songs in the same year. It finally makes sense out of the puzzle of why three ships appear in the Christmas narrative at all. Legend has it that the skulls (‘crawns’ = ‘craniums’ = ‘crowns’?) of the ‘Kings’ or ‘Wise Men’ were taken and lodged in the cathedral at Cologne.
The New Scorpion Band sang I Saw Three Ships in 2001 on their CD The Carnal and the Crane. They noted:
A carol with a long and strange pedigree, originating in the mediaeval legend of the Three Crowns of Cologne. The three crowns are in fact the ‘crawns’ or skulls of the Magi of the Nativity, and the legend tells of the journey made by these holy relics before they were presented to Cologne Cathedral by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1162. A version of the carol telling this story, beginning “I saw three ships come sailing by”, was collected from a boatman on the River Humber in 1895.
Kerfuffle sang Three Ships, “an old English carol dating back to at least the 17th century”, in 2009 on their Midwinter album Lighten the Dark.
West of Eden from Göteborg sang I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In on their 2010 CD A Celtic Christmas.
Paul and Liz Davenport sang Three Ships on their 2014 CD Wait for No Man. They noted:
This song was collected from a Humber keelman around 1897. The collector couldn’t cope with the Hull accent and so it became known as the ‘Crawn’ variant of this well-known carol. The song describes three ships carrying the skulls of the Three Kings to their resting place in Cologne Cathedral. The local legend is that these ships sheltered from a storm in the Humber, and perhaps this is why the city of Kingston upon Hull has three crowns as its coat of arms?
Vicki Swan and Jonny Dyer sang I Saw Three Ships on their 2014 CD A Sound of Christmas Past. They noted:
This carol was published in 1833 by William Sandy in the book Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern.
Doug Eunson and Sarah Matthews sang I Saw Three Ships on their 2019 CD Chimes. They noted:
A favourite of carols, this version is sung to a new tune by Derbyshire’s own Ian Carter.
Calennig sang Sandy Banks in 1980 on their Greenwich Village album Songs and Tunes From Wales and in 2014 on their WildGoose CD A Gower Garland. They noted:
This Christmas song was noted in Llangennith by the Rev. J.D. Davies in The History of West Gower. The jigs are Y Derwydd (The Druid) and Gwyn Galch Morgannwg (The White Lime of Glamorgan).
Coope Boyes & Simpson sang As I Sat on a Sunny Bank in 1998 on their No Masters CD A Garland of Carols and again in 2008 on On Angel Wings. They noted:
One of the most widespread and varied of traditional carols, best known in the form I Saw Three Ships. The Ships are a recurring feature in all the texts, but versions from different parts of the country include verses which ask for a present of Christmas cheer, or give Saint Michael the job of steering the ship while Saint John sits on the prow—there is even a form collected in 1895 from a Humber boatman which makes the Ships the transport for holy relics, taking the skulls of the Three Kings to Cologne Cathedral. It seems to have been particularly popular with children and was also a favourite of Christmas Garland printers, who regularly included it on their seasonal sheets of carol texts.
This is one of several carols collected from Mrs Wilson of King’s Langley by the folklorist Lucy Broadwood and published in English County Songs in 1892.
Kate Rusby sang Sunny Bank on her 2015 CD The Frost Is All Over.
Andy Turner sang As I Sat on a Sunny Bank as the 21 December 2017 entry of his project A Folk Song a Week.
A Winter Union sang I Saw Three Ships on their 2023 album Sooner After Solstice.
Eliza Carthy and Jon Boden sang I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In in 2023 on their Hudson album Glad Christmas Comes. Jon Boden noted:
A widely collected “folk carol” including the “sunny bank” version from Hertfordshire collected by Lucy Broadwood and the “crawn” (skulls of the wise men) variant collected from a Humber keelman. The earliest noted version is from 1666 but this 1833 version is the best known having been printed in the highly influential Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern by William Sandys.
Lyrics
Maddy Prior sings I Saw Three Ships
I saw three ships come sailing in
On Christmas day, on Christmas day
I saw three ships come sailing in
On Christmas day in the morning
And what was in those ships all three?
Our Saviour Christ and his lady.
Wither sailed those ships all three?
O they sailed into Bethlehem.
And all the bells on earth shall ring.
And angels in all Heaven shall sing.
And all the angels in Heaven shall sing.
Then let us all rejoice amain!
Nowell Sing We Clear sing I Saw Three Ships
I saw three ships come sailing by,
I saw three ships come sailing by,
By, by, by,
I saw three ships come sailing by.
I asked them what they’d got on board.
They said that they had got three crawns.
I asked them where they was taking them to.
They said they was going to Köln upon Rhine.
I asked them where they was bringing them from.
They said they was coming from Bethlehem.
I saw three ships come sailing by.
Coope Boyes & Simpson sing As I Sat on a Sunny Bank
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 saw three ships come sailing in.
I askèd them what they had in.
They said they had the Saviour in.
I askèd them where they found Him.
They said they found Him in Bethlehem.
Now all the bells on earth shall ring.
And all the souls on earth shall sing.