Doggerbank
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"Doggerbank" is one of of a vast family of songs borrowing from and parodying one another, including but not limited to "The Knickerbocker Line", "The Bigler's Crew", "Cutting Down the Pines", "The Great Northern Line", "Littlehampton Collier Lads", and "Light on Cape May". The original source of the variants was a minstrel song called "The Stage Driver", written by James Unsworth and first published in New York in 1859. This version lacks a chorus and tells a comedic story of a New York omnibus driver who mistakes a newly-arrived immigrant for an heiress. The editors of Folk Songs of the Catskills note that stage songs were often adapted with local references for performance in different areas, and indeed, within three years, versions had appeared referencing both Colorado and Nevada, and countless more would follow (including at least one by Unsworth himself). They also note an early adaptation which includes a chorus incorporating "dancelike nonsense syllables": "With a rip up and a skip up and a hoop de dooden doo". These lines are a reference to an earlier minstrel song, and seem a likely influence on the several later variants (including this one) with some iteration of "juby-ju" in the chorus.[1]
Iterations of the song spread all over the English-speaking world, from Canada and the American West to England and even Australia; some focus primarily on ships and sailing while others are more concerned with the girls in port. This version, also called "The Grimsby Fisherman", originated on the east coast of England, likely sometime around 1880.[2]
The band released their version of the song on the fourth Pieces of Eight EP, Prospect, on 6 June 2025.
Factoids
Dogger Bank is a shallow sandbank off the east coast of England, popular among fishing trawlers. It also lent its name to Doggerland, the low-lying landmass (of which it is a part) that formerly connected Great Britain to Mainland Europe, now covered by the North Sea.[3]
The Knickerbocker Line, a reference which remained intact from the very earliest version of the song, was a horse-drawn omnibus route in New York which ran from 1835 to 1865.[4]
Lyrics
As performed on the album
Sailing over the Dogger Bank
Oh, wasn't it a treat?
The wind a-blowing east northeast
We had to give our sheet
You should to see us rally
The wind a-blowing free
On a passage from the Dogger Bank
To Great Grimsby
{Chorus}
So watch her, twig her
She's a proper juby-ju
Give 'er sheet, let 'er rip
We're the boys to see her through
You should to see us rally
The wind a-blowing free
On a passage from the Dogger Bank
To Great Grimsby
Now the captain, he's a shangaroosh
And he loves a drop of good ale
The mate, he is a chimney sweep
And been in many a jail
The third hand was a bricker boy
The worst of all the crew
And take a look at the poor old cook
He gets the buggers through
{Chorus}
So it's watch her, twig her
It's down the street she came
With high heels and painted toes
Good Jinnie is on the game
She is one of them flash girls
Can't she cut a shine?
She can do a double shuffle
On the Knickerbocker Line
{Chorus}
Now, we're the boys to make a noise
When we come home from sea
We get right drunk, we roll on the floor
We have a jubilee
We get right drunk and full of beer
We roll all over the floor
And when the rent, it is all spent
We'll go to sea for more
{Chorus 2x}
On a passage from the Dogger Bank
To Great Grimsby