The Sailor's Wives is one of the finest Royal Navy songs, at least for my taste! versions are given both in Roy Palmer's
The Oxford Book of Sea Songs and
Cyril Tawney's
Grey Funnel Lines. Both provide highly improbable surrealistic descriptions of that which could be accommodated in their spouses' "hats". I love singing this song but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately!) here in Germany hardly anyone is aware of what I am going on about.