Diesel and Shale is one of a trio of Royal Navy Submarine songs by Cyril Tawney the others being Chicken on a Raft and On a British Submarine.The song deals humorously with the little-known fact outside RN circles that not all in the Silent Service are necessarily volunteers. Quite often members of technical branches were "pressed" due to insufficient of their numbers coming forward. Indeed it was a personal worry that I myself could one day be drafted to HMS Dolphin, the submarine school in Gosport. Submarine pay although generous was for me no inducement. Not only were the claustrophobic living conditions on those old subs appalling but for those such as myself, a greenie in electronics, there was scant opportunity of career advancement. No, Sir! It was the surface life for me where you could see where you were going and where you had been.
Diesel and Shale is given in Roy Palmer's The Oxford Book of Sea Songs.
This song may be found in the Tyneside Maritime Chorus songbook

Lyrics