A Sailor Went to Sea

"A Sailor Went to Sea" is a traditional children's nursery rhyme, clapping game, and skipping rhyme. It was initially called 'My Father Went to Sea', before becoming more widely known as 'A Sailor Went to Sea'.

Lyrics

A first verse of A Sailor Went To Sea goes as:

A sailor went to sea, sea, sea

To see what he could see, see, see.

But all that he could see, see, see

Was the bottom of the deep blue sea, sea, sea.

While saying "sea", aquatic waves are mimed with the hand; while saying "see", the hand is brought to the eye to mime a "seeing" gesture.

Further verses typically replace "sea/see" with other words, such as "chop", "knee", "bed", or "pick", "toes", with appropriate gestural substitutions.

In popular culture

• In 1994, VeggieTales parodied the song in its second episode, "God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?!" during a parody of Gilligan's Island. The crew members sing "Some Veggies Went To Sea" in an attempt to entertain their passengers.

• The Australian Children's Series Hi-5 in 2003 in their song titled "Underwater Discovery" responding to series 5 in a final verse is included in the song

• In 2016, the song appeared in "Gloriana", episode 10, season 1 of the Netflix drama The Crown.

• In 2022, the song was a recurring motif in Molly of Denali episode "Unsinkable Molly Mabray." The protagonists sing the song multiple times while constructing a boat and during fantasy sequences.

See also

• "Pretty Little Dutch Girl"

Further reading

• Curtis, Mavis (2004). "A sailor went to sea: theme and variations". Folk Music Journal. 8 (4): 421–437. JSTOR 4522717.
• Opie, Iona Archibald (1985). The Singing Game. Oxford University Press. pp. 467–468. ISBN 978-0-19-211562-1.

External links

• The British Library - Audio recording of A Sailor Went to Sea, 1972