Roll Alabama Roll has become one of my maritime favourites since joining the Tyneside Maritime Chorus in the Spring of 2011. There are numerous versions, some with very many verses, but the one that I sing myself is that of Stan Hugill who took it down from a New Zealand lady whose husband served on the Alabama. This version was reprinted in Roy Palmer's The Oxford Book of Sea Songs.
The song tells the story of the Alabama's building at Birkenhead and her destruction by the Kearsage just off Cherbourg and the escape of her captain, Semmes, on a British yacht. Fine rousing stuff indeed. This song may be found in the Tyneside Maritime Chorus songbook

Lyrics