Roll Alabama Roll

This traditional halyard shanty tells the story of the sinking of the Confederate sloop-of-war CSS Alabama by the Yankee USS Kearsarge on June 19, 1864, at the Battle of Cherbourg during the American Civil War. Its lyrics are often attributed to Frank Townsend, a sailor on the Alabama who was rescued by a nearby British yacht when the Alabama sank,https://mainlynorfolk.info/peter.bellamy/songs/thealabama.html though the oldest surviving record of the song only dates to 1925 and is unattributed, making this difficult to confirm. It shares a tune with another traditional song titled "Roll the Cotton Down".https://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/Doe035.html
The Longest Johns performed this on their March 2019 livestream with Sam Brookes. 
=== Factoids===
CSS Alabama was built in secret by British shipbuilders John Laird Sons and Company for the Confederate States Navy in 1862. British neutrality law allowed the ship to be built there as long as it was not actually armed until it reached international waters.
The ship sailed for two years, mostly cruising around the Atlantic attacking Union merchant ships as part of the Confederacy's strategy to try to draw Union forces away from their blockade of the South.
The ship's fate was sealed when it put in at Cherbourg, France for repairs, and the Union ship USS Kearsarge trapped them in Cherbourg Harbor. Rather than try to wait them out, Alabama's Captain Semmes decided to try and fight his way out; Kearsarge, armor-clad and better armed, won the day and sank the Confederate ship.
The three-mile limit refers to the historical boundary separating a country's territorial waters from international waters, traditionally held to be the limit of the range of cannon-fire. Here, the Kearsage would have waited until the Alabama reached the three-mile limit so their attack would not be seen as an attack against neutral France.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-mile_limit
== Lyrics ==
These lyrics are based on the version performed by the Longest Johns in their livestreams.
Well the Alabama's keel was laid
(Roll, Alabama, roll!)
It was laid in the yard of Jonathan Laird
(Oh, roll, Alabama, roll!) [repeat throughout]
It was laid in the yard of Jonathan Laird
It was laid in the town of Birkenhead
Down the Mersey channel she sailéd then
And Liverpool fitted her with guns and men
Down the Mersey channel she sailéd forth
to exploit the commerce of the north
Into Cherbourg Harbour she sailed one day
To take her share of prize money
And many a sailor saw his doom
When the Kearsarge she sailed into view
A shot from the forward pivot that day
Blew the Alabama's steering away
Oh the three-mile limit, in sixty-four
And she sank to the bottom of the ocean floor
==Recordings==
====YouTube Videos====
*Music Video
====Full Band Streams====
*The Longest Johns and Friends, March. w/Sam Brookes (22 Mar 2019)
*The Longest Johns Streamtember (4 Sep 2019)
*Lockdown Lullabies and Rousing Renditions (15 Apr 2020)
*We're Going to Wellermania! (14 Apr 2021)
*Streamworks (18 Jan 2023)
Category:Songs
Category:Robbie Songs
Category:Traditional