Fire Down Below
Hugill gives several shanties with this name but ours, an American derivative, is a different song altogether. The song refers obliquely to the knocking shops of The Barbary Coast, which was a red-light district in old San Francisco, California. The neighbourhood quickly took on its seedy character during the California Gold Rush (1848–1858) and was known for gambling, prostitution and crime.
The name Midway Plaisance
was later taken by an area of south-side
Fire Down Below
I thought I heard our old man say
Chorus:
Fire down below-oh-oh-oh-ohh, boys
Fire down below
You can go ashore and collect your pay
So I’ll take some clothes and run away
I'll go to my girl down
I know very well with me she will stay
Because she knows I have twelve month’s pay
And we'll go down to the Midway Plaisance
To see the pretty girls do the hoochy-coochee dance
So I’ll go ashore and get my pay
Then I'll run away at the break of day