Tilbury Town

Often mistaken for a traditional folk song, this song was originally titled "Rolling Down the River" and written by Jack Forbes of the Hoy Shanty Crew for a BBC radio ballad titled "Wind Over Tilbury", which documented the vast changes to the shipping industry brought about by containerization. (A portion of the program, including a clip of the original song, is available to listen online.)

The song has been performed by numerous bands worldwide at various festivals, and, as Forbes himself noted, has even been translated into Polish.

### Factoids

The Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (**TEU**) is a type of shipping container used on cargo ships, and also often used as a (rather inaccurate) measure of capacity.

The port of **Tilbury** is the largest deepwater port on the river Thames, located 22 nautical miles east of central London. It is one of the most prominent shipping ports not just for London but for the whole of England, with a current annual throughput of 16 million tonnes.

Overseas Containers Limited (**OCL**) was a British container shipping company formed in 1965; by 1982, it was Europe's largest container shipping line.

## Lyrics

These lyrics are based on the version sung by the Longest Johns in their livestreams.

Well the first I saw a TEU

(Rolling up and rolling down)

I wondered where the hell they stored the crew

To go (rolling down the river) [continues throughout verses]

{Chorus}

(Hey!)

Rolling up and rolling down

We'll all get drunk in Tilbury Town

Twenty-four hours to turn around

And go rolling down the river

Well I used to be a rigger and I worked like hell

But now I'm working for the OCL

{Chorus}

Well cargo it comes in TEUs

A 20-foot box, boys, filled with booze

{Chorus}

There's a Tilbury girl called Kettle Jane

She's hot on the boil and off again

{Chorus}

Well she's got a mate called Teapot Anne

She gets well brewed, she likes her man

{Chorus}

Well Tilbury girls go 'round in pairs

You won't catch them, boys, unawares

{Chorus}

Well we're the boys to kick her through

To hell with the channel and the TEU

(Let's go down the river)

{Chorus 2x}

## Recordings

#### YouTube Videos

* "What do you mean, Battle Music?" | Open Crewsing in Sea of Thieves | Surprise Shanties (26 Jan 2022)
* Music Video

#### Full Band Streams

* TLJ & Friends! | Natalie Holmes (27 Nov 2019)
* The Longest Johns In Quarantine (after failed intro + love to @El Pony Pisador) (1 Mar 2020)
* We Built This Stream(y) on Shant and Folk (11 Nov 2020)
* We’re Going to Wellermania! (14 Apr 2021)
* Amazing Technicolor Stream-coat! (7 Jul 2021)
* Nightmare on Elm Stream (27 Oct 2021)
* Stream America (15 Mar 2022)
* Stream me up Scotty! (23 Aug 2022)
* Streamworks (18 Jan 2023)
* Stream Lantern (27 Sep 2023)

#### Gaming Streams

* Sea of Sings! Yarr and all that… - 16/10/2020
* Let’s get splashy - 14/12/2020
* Four men and a baby. (The baby is our ship) - 10/05/2021
* Roll on up, roll on down. We all get songs in Streaming Town - 31/05/2021
* Sea of Sings - Putting the rum in Rumbustiousness since 1862 - 06/09/2021
* Sailing with friends and singing shanties? I’d ship that! With Krotukk - 15/10/2021
* Say “A shoddily shod ship” 3 times fast… 29/10/2021
* Bo………..@? - 15/11/2021
* We're back! Lily-livered land-lubbers beware! with Kharites\_ & Krotukk! - 04/02/2022
* Two SoT streams in one week?!? What is this, 2020? - 01/04/2022

1. ↑ http://www.ridgeweb.co.uk/hoy\_songs.html
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-foot\_equivalent\_unit
3. ↑ https://www.forthports.co.uk/our-ports/tilbury-london/
4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas\_Containers