Annotation:Three Sea Captains (The)
X:1 T:Three Sea Captains, The M:6/8 L:1/8 K:G D|G2G BGB|c2A F2A|G2A B2c|d2B G2B| c2c ecA|B2B dBG|A2B c2B|ABG FED| G2G BGB|c2A F2A|G2A B2c|d2B G2B| cec A2c|BdB G2F|EcB AGF|(G3G2)|| d|g2g dcB|ABc def|g2g efg|fdd d2d| c2c ecA|B2B dBG|A2B c2B|ABG FED| G2G BGB|c2A F2A|G2A B2c|d2B G2B| cec A2c|BdB G2F|EcB AGF|(G3G2)||
THREE SEA CAPTAINS, THE. AKA and see "Three Captains (1) (The)],” “William Clark's Favorite." Irish, English; Set Dance, Morris Dance (6/8 time), or Jig. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Allan's): AB (Heymann, Kennedy, Raven, Wade). O'Neill records that he found the earliest printed setting in McGoun'sRepository of Scots and Irish Airs (1799) as “Mr. William Clark’s Favorite.” The tune is used for either a single or polka step in the North‑West (England) morris dance tradition. In Ireland, the tune is called “The Three Captains,” and a set dance is performed to it. The Irish dance set has folk-lore attached that says both tune and dance were composed to be descriptive of the Battle of Navarino, fought in the Ionian Sea by a combined fleet from Britain, France and Russia against the Egyptian and Ottoman fleets in 1827 during the Greek War of Independence. The tale has persisted despite factual evidence of printings that much predate this date. In the folklore scenario the three sea captains are presumably the commanders of the allied fleets, Edward Codrington, Henri de Rigny and Login Petrovich Geiden. According to some dancers the set dance figures initially describe the ships lining up for the beginning of the battle, then turning about and returning (see the article about Cork set dancer Joe O’Donovan inSet Dancing News, 2003).
