I Saw Three Ships

"I Saw Three Ships (Come Sailing In)" is an English Christmas carol, listed as number 700 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

The modern lyrics are from an 1833 version by the English lawyer and antiquarian William Sandys, and consist of nine verses.

The lyrics mention the ships sailing into Bethlehem, but the nearest body of water is the Dead Sea about 20 miles (32 km) away.

[2] Another possible reference is to Wenceslaus II, King of Bohemia, who bore a coat of arms "Azure three galleys argent".

In the 1910s, the English folklorists Cecil Sharp[5] and Janet Blunt[6] noted the tunes and lyrics of dozens of versions, primarily in the south of England.

[11] In 1956, Peter Kennedy recorded a man named John Thomas singing the song in Camborne, Cornwall.

[15] When they were collecting folk songs in the British Isles in 1952, Jean Ritchie and her husband George Pickow encountered the Irish traditional singer Elizabeth Cronin in Macroom, County Cork, who sang a version called "The Bells of Heaven".