"Capital Ship" also known as "Blow, Ye Winds, Heigh-Ho" and "The Walloping Window-Blind" is not actually a sea chanty. It is actually a British music hall song by Charles Edward Carryl (1841 – 1920), an American children's literature author set to a tune known as "Ten Thousand Miles Away". How it got from an American author to a British music hall is anyone's guess. The original poem was published in 1885. The nonsensical lyrics and verse style are similar to the poems of Lewis Carrol of "Alice in Wonderland" fame. The window blind reference in the first verse brings to mind the "furl the window blind" verse of "Paddy West". Some sources report that in the 1920's, British music hall performances were sometimes done in Gilbert and Sullivan style which may explain the popularity of the song. My first memory of this tune comes from early in my violin lessons. I thought it was just another made up tune for a lesson but my family seemed to know it. I hadn't thought about it for many years but it seems to stick with me. It was recorded by Bounding Main on Lost at Sea (2005), Glen Yarborough on Come Sit by My Side (1957) and Natalie Merchant on Leave Your Sleep (2010). Glenda Jackson performed it in The Muppet Show episode 507 with her crew of muppet pirates.