"Heart of Oak" is the official march of the Royal Navy. It is also the official march of several Commonwealth navies, including the Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal New Zealand Navy. It was the official march of the Royal Australian Navy, but has now been replaced by the new march, "Royal Australian Navy".[1] As of late 2024, the Royal Canadian Navy is seeking an alternative official march "after deciding the lyrics, which celebrate British military victories in the colonial era and sing of men but not women, are disrespectful and outdated."[2]
The music of Heart of Oak was written in 1759 by composer William Boyce, the lyrics by actor David Garrick, for Garrick's pantomime Harlequin's Invasion, to which others contributed as well. The pantomime was first performed on New Year's Eve of that year at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London,[3] with Handel soloist Samuel Thomas Champnes singing Heart of Oak.
The oak in the song's title refers to the wood from which British warships were generally made during the age of sail. The "Heart of oak" is the strongest central wood of the tree. The reference to "freemen not slaves" echoes the refrain ("Britons never will be slaves!") of Rule, Britannia!, written and composed two decades earlier.[4]
Come cheer up, my lads! 'tis to glory we steer,
To add something more to this wonderful year;
To honour we call you, as free men not slaves,
For who are so free as the sons of the waves?
Chorus:
Heart of oak are our ships, heart of oak are our men;
We always are ready, steady, boys, steady!
We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again.[8]
Amended words
Come, cheer up, my lads, 'tis to glory we steer,
To add something new to this wonderful year;
To honour we call you, as freemen not slaves,
For who are so free as the sons of the waves?
Chorus:
Heart of Oak are our ships,
Jolly Tars are our men,
We always are ready: Steady, boys, Steady!
We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again.
We ne'er see our foes but we wish them to stay,
They never see us but they wish us away;
If they run, why we follow, and run them ashore,
For if they won't fight us, what can we do more?
(Chorus)
They say they'll invade us, these terrible foes,
They frighten our women, our children, our beaus,
But if they in their flat-bottoms, in darkness set oar,
Still Britons they'll find to receive them on shore.
(Chorus)
We still make them fear and we still make them flee,
And drub them ashore as we drub them at sea,
Then cheer up me lads with one heart let us sing,
Our soldiers and sailors, our statesmen and king.
(Chorus)
Alternative first verse:
Come, cheer up, my lads, 'tis to glory we steer,
With heads carried high, we will banish all fear;
To honour we call you, as freemen not slaves,
For who are so free as the sons of the waves?
Alternative last verse:
Britannia triumphant her ships rule the seas,
Her watchword is 'Justice' her password is 'Free',
So come cheer up my lads, with one heart let us sing,
Our soldiers, our sailors, our statesmen, our King [Queen].
Royal Canadian Navy
Come, cheer up, my lads, 'tis to glory we steer,
To add something new to this wonderful year;
To honour we call you, not press you like slaves,
For who are so free as the sons of the waves?
Chorus:
Heart of Oak are our ships,
Jolly Tars are our men,
We always are ready: Steady, boys, steady!
We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again.[9]
Debout mes gaillards, pointons-nous vers la gloire,
Fleurons ajoutons à ces heures sans déboire[3]
Sans carcans et sans joug,
Tout l'honneur nous attend,
Pour nous qui sommes les fils libres de l'océan.
Coeur de chêne nos navires
Gais lurons nos marins
Toujours fidèles au poste,
Hardis, gars, hardis!
L'avenir est à nous les vrais!
Coeur de chêne nos navires,
Gais lurons nos marins,
Toujours fidèles au poste,
Hardis, gars, hardis!
L'avenir est à nous les vrais conquérants![10]
Notes
1.^ Some cadet units use instead "Fleurons ajoutons à cet an sans déboire".
New lyrics
A new version was presented on 16 April 1809 and published by Reverend Rylance.[11]
When Alfred, our King, drove the Dane from this land,
He planted an oak[12] with his own royal hand;
And he pray'd for Heaven's blessing to hallow the tree,
As a sceptre for England, the queen of the sea.
The sapling shot up and stuck firm to the ground;
It defied every tempest that bellow'd around;
And still was it seen with fresh vigour to shoot,
When the blood of our martyrs had moisten'd its root.
(Chorus)
But the worms of corruption had eaten their way
Through its bark; till a Wardle[14] has swept them away,
He has sworn, no such reptiles our tree shall infest,
And our patriots soon shall extirpate the nest.
(Chorus)
Yon tyrant, whose rule abject Europe bemoans —
Yon brood of usurpers who sit on her thrones —
Shall look on our country, and tremble with awe, Where a son of the Monarch has bow'd to the law,
(Chorus)
Now long live the Briton, who dar'd to revive
The spirit which Britons scarce felt was alive;
His name shall be carv'd, while of freedom we sing,
On the oak that was planted by Alfred our King.
^John Ogasapian, Music of the Colonial and Revolutionary Era (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004), 100-101. ISBN0313324352, 9780313324352
^Brunsman, Denver (30 March 2013). The Evil Necessity: British Naval Impressment in the Eighteenth-century. Charlottesville, US: University of Virginia Press. ISBN9780813933511.
^[2]. CCMRC Gatineau 236. 2018. Retrieved 13 October 2024
^Rylance, Reverence (1809). Spirit of the public Journals, vol. XIII, p. 75.
^The reference is to an oak which stood close to the Water Walk, the Magdalen College, Oxford, and by tradition was planted by King Alfred. However the oak collapsed in 1778 and a chair for the college President was made from it.
^Reference to the rift sawing of hardwoods used in boat and ship construction. This produces timber less susceptible to warping and shrinkage and lumber of great stability. Contemporary opinions were that the British sailors were more steady in combat than the French, who were prone to over-excitement and, therefore, more difficult to command in combat.
^The name Wardle is said to be derived from "Ward Hill", connoting a "fortified place", as a reference to the ship of the line, described as "wooden walls".
