Coasts of High Barbary

Song Information

Composer: Traditional

Lyric Author: Traditional

Published: 16th Century

Country of origin: England

General Interest

The earliest version known was registered in 1595, but the version from which the most well known versions are derived appeared about 100 years later.

The song, which can be in the style of a ballad or a chantey, relates the problems caused by North African pirates disrupting trade.

Until 1801 America and England paid yearly tribute to the four Barbary states of North Africa for free passage of merchant ships. This song celebrating the fight of the Prince of Wales with one of the Barbary pirates was written by Charles Dibdin, writer of songs for the British Navy.

Burl Ives, Burl Ives Song Book, New York, NY, 1966, p. 116

Almost certainly the story once followed the same lines as "The George Aloe and the Sweepstake" [c. 1600; quoted in Fletcher's play The Two Noble Kinsmen, 1634; earliest extant copy: 1670], a reworking of which it seems to be.

The fighting ship's name frequently appears as Prince of Luther, but this is evidently a corruption of the far more plausible Prince Rupert, honoring the Stuart general and admiral.

Albert B. Friedman, The Penguin Book of Folk Ballads, New York, NY, 1977, p. 407

Here's a link to the Lyric:

Coasts of High Barbary Lyric

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