All Aboard for Bombay Lyrics
Passengers are called aboard for a voyage to Bombay and Rome, told to bring wire, nails and sausages and to remember Terry Tagg's dog. The ship turns out to be a floating cedar log.
All Aboard for Bombay
All aboard for Bombay,
All aboard for Rome!
Leave your little sisters
And your loving aunts at home.
Bring a bit of bailing wire,
A pocketful of nails,
And half a dozen wiener-wursts
For every man that sails.
Tell Terry Tagg, when you go by,
Be sure to bring his dog.
All aboard for Bombay
On a floating cedar log!
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/all-aboard-for-bombay/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Leroy F. Jackson
- Tune
- A rousing ship's-captain call, with a laugh on the last line
- Best for ages
- 4 to 8 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| All aboard for Bombay | Cup your hands around your mouth like a ship's caller. |
| A pocketful of nails | Pat your pocket as if it were heavy. |
What Does All Aboard for Bombay Mean?
The poem is a ship's call that goes quietly wrong. Bombay was the name of the big Indian port that is called Mumbai today (it was renamed in 1995), and Rome is the capital of Italy, so the travellers are heading a very long way. The packing list is the joke. Bailing wire is the book's spelling of baling wire, the strong wire used to tie up bales of hay. A wiener-wurst is a sausage; wurst is the German word for sausage. Add a pocketful of nails and a dog belonging to Terry Tagg, and it is a very odd cargo.
Then comes the last line. The voyage is not on a liner at all but "on a floating cedar log". A cedar is a tall evergreen tree, and a log is not much of a ship for crossing the sea.
History and Origin
The verse is by Leroy F. Jackson and dates from the 1918 copyright of his rhyme book.
Learning Activities
- Pack the ship: let the child choose what the poem says to bring, and then add three things of their own.
- Find the places: look for Mumbai (once Bombay) and Rome on a globe and see how far apart they are.
- Log boat: float a stick or a piece of bark in a bowl of water and see what it can carry before it tips.
- Captain's call: take turns being the captain who calls the passengers aboard.