Uploaded December 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Day 259 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Sandburg writes: "Across the Western Ocean, from the R. W. Gordon collection, dates about 1850, after the Irish potato famine; packet ships carried thousands from Liverpool across to where there was “the Irish army,” the many immigrants to America. “Amelia” is said to trace to the Irish name O’Melia."
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Frank Shay, American Sea Songs and Chanteys (1948) attempted to find a ship Amelia that might have been the inspiration for the chorus. He found none that fit, and suggested "O'Malley" as a possible emendation. Of course, the other possibility (as he himself admits) is that Amelia is just a girl. Shay also has an unusual verse, in which the sailor heads across the ocean "To join the Irish army." Shay does not connect this with any sort of militarism; he thinks it applies simply to the mass emigration of the Irish to America.
Day 259 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Sandburg writes: "Across the Western Ocean, from the R. W. Gordon collection, dates about 1850, after the Irish potato famine; packet ships carried thousands from Liverpool across to where there was “the Irish army,” the many immigrants to America. “Amelia” is said to trace to the Irish name O’Melia."
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Frank Shay, American Sea Songs and Chanteys (1948) attempted to find a ship Amelia that might have been the inspiration for the chorus. He found none that fit, and suggested "O'Malley" as a possible emendation. Of course, the other possibility (as he himself admits) is that Amelia is just a girl. Shay also has an unusual verse, in which the sailor heads across the ocean "To join the Irish army." Shay does not connect this with any sort of militarism; he thinks it applies simply to the mass emigration of the Irish to America.
