I Saw Three Ships

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I Saw Three Ships is a traditional and popular Christmas carol from England. It is often regarded as a children's song, due to the simplicity and repetitiveness of its lyrics. Some sources assert that this song is "an upbeat variant of Greensleeves", which has a similar meter.

Digest of lyrics, as sung by Nat King Cole:

I saw three ships come sailing in

And what was in those ships all three?

The Virgin Mary and Christ were there

And all the Angels in Heav'n shall sing

Then let us all rejoice again

On Christmas Day in the morning

There are plenty of traditional versions of this that have been collected/ recorded in the UK. Here is the text of a version traditional in the repertoire of the romany traveller family, the Brazil family of Gloucester as sung by Lemmy Brazil, recorded by Peter Shepheard in the 1960s:

I saw three ships go sailing by,

Sailing by, sailing by;

I saw three ships go sailing by,

On Chrissemas day in the morning.

Joseph and Mary was on the ship,

On the ship, on the ship;

Joseph and Mary was on the ship,

On Chrissemas day in the morning.

''Joseph whistled and Mary singed,

And all the bells in Heaven ringed;

All the bells in Heaven ringed,

On Chrissemas day in the morning.

A Baroque-style instrumental version from the first Narada New Age-genre Christmas album has received much airplay due to its use as underscore music on The Weather Channel during Christmas season.

Bethlehem, being inland, has no actual seaport.

The song features in the opening titles of the classic 1935 film version of David Copperfield

This song is also sung by Shelly Marsh on "South Park".

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