The popularity and the prevalence of conventional representations of sailors and artificial naval lyrics seem to have put an end to the production of genuine sea songs. In the vast mass of street songs issued by various printers between 1815 and 1870 there are many about sailors at sea and on shore, but they are mostly amatory or romantic. The most interesting are stories about shipwrecks or crudely realistic ditties about sprees on shore which illustrate the history of the merchant service rather than the navy. Such titles as _The Liverpool Landlady_, _The Sailor’s Frolic or Life in the East_, and _Rolling Down Wapping_ are a sufficient indication of their contents. Amongst this miscellaneous mass there are a few ballads relating to incidents in naval history occurring between 1815 and the Crimean war. They are poor things, lacking in the spirit and the vigorous realism which often redeem the doggerel verses of the previous century. For that reason it will suffice to quote a few of those which survive, and to print half a dozen of the best as specimens. The bombardment of Algiers by Lord Exmouth on August 27, 1816, was the first important naval event after the peace of 1815. It is narrated in a ballad printed by James Catnach, in which a sailor who had served on board the Superb undertook to tell ‘how we fought like any lions bold to set the Christians free.’ Three verses may be quoted: ‘On the twenty-seventh of August, just by the break of day, We espied the city of Algiers to windward of us lay; “All hands, all hands to quarters,” it was the general cry, “Come load your guns with round and grape before we draw too nigh.” ‘The first was the _Queen Charlotte_ so nobly led the van, She was followed by the _Superb_, Captain Atkins gave command, The next was the _Leander_ with all her warlike crew, She was followed by the _Impregnable_, Rear-Admiral of the Blue.’ Then comes a catalogue of the rest of the fleet, in which the six Dutch frigates taking part in the action are not forgotten. ‘Take pattern by those English lads, they show you gallant play,’ said the Dutch admiral to his crews. ‘Now there’s one thing more that I relate, which is to be admired, At five o’clock that afternoon we set their ships on fire, Our rocket ships and bomb ships so well their parts did play The Algerines from their batteries were forced to run away.’ The last verse concluded with healths to Lord Exmouth and to Captain Atkins (or properly Captain Charles Ekins) of the Superb. The battle of Navarino, fought on October 20, 1827, inspired several ballads. _The Battle of Navarino_, which will be found at length in John Ashton’s _Modern Street Ballads_, 1888, p. 225, begins thus: