Notes on a Christmas Carol

 ‘I Saw Three Ships’

I saw three ships come sailing in,
    On Christmas day, on Christmas day;
I saw three ships come sailing in,
    On Christmas day in the morning.

And what was in those ships all three,
    On Christmas day, on Christmas day?
And what was in those ships all three,
    On Christmas day in the morning?

Our Saviour Christ and his lady,
    On Christmas day, on Christmas day;
Our Saviour Christ and his lady,
    On Christmas day in the morning.

Pray whither sailed those ships all three,
    On Christmas day, on Christmas day?
Pray whither sailed those ships all three,
    On Christmas day in the morning?

O they sailed into Bethlehem,
    On Christmas day, on Christmas day;
O they sailed into Bethlehem,
    On Christmas day in the morning.

And all the bells on earth shall ring,
    On Christmas day, on Christmas day;
And all the bells on earth shall ring,
    On Christmas day in the morning.

And all the Angels in Heaven shall sing,
    On Christmas day, on Christmas day;
And all the Angels in Heaven shall sing,
    On Christmas day in the morning.

And all the Souls on Earth shall sing,
    On Christmas day, on Christmas day;
And all the Souls on Earth shall sing,
    On Christmas day in the morning.

Then let us all rejoice amain,
    On Christmas day, on Christmas day;
Then let us all rejoice, amain,
    On Christmas day in the morning.

William Sandys, Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern (London: Richard Beckley, 1833), pp. 112-13.

Notes:
It is sometimes asserted that the earliest version of this carol is the one published by John Forbes in 1666. An earlier copy of the Forbes’ version, however, is found, written in an early seventeenth-century hand, in the St Andrews Psalter (also known as the Thomas Wood or Thomas Wode Psalter).

Wilhelm Bolle, ‘Forbes’ “Songs and fancies”, das erste in Schottland gedruckte Liederbuch’, Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, 131 (1913), 320-33 (p. 320).

The Forbes/Wode version includes Saint Michael and Saint John on the miraculous voyage to (landlocked) Bethlehem:

         Cantus. Three Voices.
All sones of Adam, rise up with me,
Go praise the blessed Trinitie.
Go praise the blessed Trinitie.
Cry Kyrie, with Hosanna, sing Alleluja now.
Save us all, Emanuel.
Then spake the Archangel Gabriel, said,
Ave, Mary mild, the Lord of Lords is with thee,
now shall you go with child:
Ecce ancilla domini.
Then said the Virgin, as thou hast said, so mat it be,
Welcom be heavens King welcom be heavens King.
There comes a ship far sailing then,  
Saint Michel was the stieres-man:
Saint John sate in the horn:
Our Lord harped, our Lady sang,
And all the bells of heaven they rang,
On Christs Sunday at morn, On Christs Sunday at morn,
Then sang the Angels all and some,
Lauda Deum tuum, Si-on.
The sons of Adam answered, then sang,
Glore be to the God and man, The Father and the Sprite,
Also with honor and perpetual joy, with honor and perpetual joy.

John Forbes, Cantus, Songs and Fancies, 2nd edn (Aberdeen: Printed by John Forbes, 1666), fols. K1^v-K2^v.

Another interesting version, noted by Lewis Davis, includes mention of the medieval transfer of the relics of the Magi to Cologne:

I saw three ships come sailing by, by, by,
I axed ’em what they’d got aboard-board-board,
They said they’d got three crawns-crawns-crawns,
I axed ’em where they was taken to-to-o, to-o; to-ooö,
They said they was ganging to Coln upon Rhine, Co-ln, Co-ln,
I axed ’em where they came frae-frae-frae,
They said they came frae Bethlehem-Beth-Beth

   ‘The above version of the story of the translation to Cologne of the crania of the Magi in 1162 by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who carried them off from S. Eustorgio, Milan, and presented them to Cologne Cathedral, was noted by Mr. Lewis Davis of Pinner, and sent by him to Mr. Baring Gould, probably c. 1895, as the latter prints it in his Garland of Country Songs under the unpromising, indeed deterrent heading of “All round my hat” from a fancied resemblance of the melody to that street-tune as it had then become! In the legend, the original number of the ships seems to have been three, the reputed skulls of the Magi having each been carried in a separate ship, presumably for the greater honour of each. But when persons were substituted for these relics the number of ships was made to correspond-so we get two ships for “Joseph and his fair lady,” and still later, one only for “The Saviour.” ’

Anne G. Gilchrist, ‘The Three Kings of Cologne’, Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, 5.1 (1946), 31-40 (pp. 33-34).

Also compare:
‘The North Ship’
   Legend

I saw three ships go sailing by,
Over the sea, the lifting sea,
And the wind rose in the morning sky,
And one was rigged for a long journey.

The first ship turned towards the west,
Over the sea, the running sea,
And by the wind was all possessed
And carried to a rich country.

The second ship turned towards the east,
Over the sea, the quaking sea,
And the wind hunted it like a beast
To anchor in captivity.

The third ship drove towards the north,
Over the sea, the darkening sea,
But no breath of wind came forth,
And the decks shone frostily.

The northern sky rose high and black
Over the proud unfruitful sea,
East and west the ships came back
Happily or unhappily:

But the third went wide and far
Into an unforgiving sea
Under a fire-spilling star,
And it was rigged for a long journey.

Philip Larkin, Collected Poems (London: The Marvell Press, 2003), p. 36.