Drunken Sailor
Sea shanty
"Drunken Sailor", also known as "What Will/Shall We Do with a/the Drunken Sailor?" or "Up She Rises", is a traditional sea shanty, listed as No. 322 in the Roud Folk Song Index. It was sung aboard sailing ships at least as early as the 1830s. The first published description of the shanty is found in an account of an 1839 whaling voyage out of New London, Connecticut, to the Pacific Ocean.
The song's lyrics vary, but usually contain some variant of the question, "What shall we do with a drunken sailor, early in the morning?" In some styles of performance, each successive verse suggests a method of sobering or punishing the drunken sailor. In other styles, further questions are asked and answered about different people.
"Drunken Sailor" was revived as a popular song among non-sailors in the 20th century and grew to become one of the best-known songs of the shanty repertoire among mainstream audiences. It has been performed and recorded by many musicians and appeared regularly in popular culture.
The word "early" in the song is pronounced .
History
Origin and melody
The authorship and origin of the song are unknown, but it bears a resemblance with the traditional Irish folk song Óró sé do bheatha abhaile due to its shared chord progression and use of repeated lyrics over melodic sequences.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Drunken Sailor” as sea shanty. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as sea shanty. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1261354. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1839.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Drunken Sailor”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Drunken Sailor primary sources, Drunken Sailor archive and Drunken research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Drunken Sailor”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Drunken Sailor” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.