13 - Bold Riley

Words by Traditional
Tune by Traditional

In 19th-century Liverpool, it was fashionable for wealthier women to wear white stockings. Each month on 'white stocking day', women went to the shipping office dressed in their best clothes to collect the 'allotment' which was the half pay of their sailing family member away at sea. Not all sailors made provision for the women to collect this allotment, preferring to take a larger advance payment for themselves, and this problem inspired the Liverpool feminist social campaigner and MP Eleanor Rathbone to demand a fairer system of providing for sailors’ and soldiers' dependants during the First World War, eventually culminating in her Family Allowances Act of 1945.

Our anchor’s aweigh and our sails are set,
Bold Riley-oh, bold Riley,
And the folks we’re leaving we’ll never forget,
Bold Riley-oh has gone away!

Goodbye my sweetheart, goodbye my dear-o,
Bold Riley-oh, bold Riley,
Goodbye my darling, goodbye my dear-o,
Bold Riley-oh has gone away.

Wake up Mary Ellen, don’t look so glum,
Bold Riley-oh, bold Riley,
On Whitestocking day, you’ll be drinking rum
Bold Riley-oh has gone away!

Goodbye my sweetheart, goodbye my dear-o,

The rain it rains all day long,
Bold Riley-oh, bold Riley,
And the Northern Gale, it blows so strong,
Bold Riley-oh has gone away!

Goodbye my sweetheart, goodbye my dear-o,

So we’re outward bound for the Bengal Bay,
Bold Riley-oh, bold Riley,
Bend your backs me boys, it’s a hell of a way.
Bold Riley-oh has gone away!