James Frederick Swift (28 December 1847, Manchester[1] – 9 January 1931, Wallasey[2][n 1]) was an English organist and composer.
[3] He mostly worked for religious establishments such as St Andrew's Church in Liverpool for 10 years, but he also composed around 200 non-religious songs and ballads under the pseudonym, Godfrey Marks.
[1][4] One of his most famous songs is Sailing, Sailing.
It is a possibility that Swift composed this work on seamanship based on his inspiration from Nancy Lee by Michael Maybrick,[5] despite that his daughter, Ruby Gertrude Swift, expressed that his father had never been close to seafaring activities.
[6] One of his famous religious songs includes Ernstein.