"A simple song about the loss of innocence, synonymous with virginity", as Soodlum's 100 Irish Ballads Volume 1 succinctly expresses it. I much enjoy "singing" it myself, despite or because of the incongruity of an old white beard like me roaring it at 60 dB. Perhaps it is the odd reference to lucky "lusty sailor who chanced to pass my way ..." stirring remembrances of unfulfilled youthful desires in this old Greenie!