On Board of the Kangaroo also known as On Board the Kangaroo, Aboard the Kangaroo, Good Ship Kangaroo and Bristol Sea Shanty is generally regarded as an English shanty.[1] It was composed by Londoner Harry Clifton, reviewed in the press in July 1864, and published as sheet music in 1865.[2][3] The song is sung from the perspective of a mariner who worked on a ship called the Kangaroo, which was probably SSKangaroo, an 1853 Scottish cargo steamer that foundered in a gale off Rhoscolyn, Wales in January 1862.[4][5] It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 925.[6]
Notable recordings
Elizabeth Cronin - The Songs of Elizabeth Cronin, Irish Traditional Singer: The Complete Song Collection (2000)[7]
^Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí, ed. (2000). The Songs of Elizabeth Cronin, Irish Traditional Singer: The Complete Song Collection. Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN1- 85182-259-3.