When Our Ship Comes Sailing In Lyrics

1st Verse
DUKE:
We stand watching the horizon,
Casting anxious eager eyes on
All the little ships as they go passing by.

POTTER:
How we're hoping, how we're yearning,
For a safe and sound returning.
Are we soon to see our ship against the sky?

SHORTY:
Anyone who's ever waited on a pier
Will appreciate our feeling here.

ALL:
What a tender welcome we will give our friends
As their journey ends.

1st Refrain

When our ship comes sailing in-
We will shout our joy
With a "Ship ahoy!"
Then our glad days will begin
When we start unloading the gin.

DUKE:
Our guilty conscience we will try to smother;

SHORTY:
We'll hail each Prohibitionist a brocher,

POTTER:
And sell a dozen cases to his mother!

ALL:
When our ship comes sailing in -
Full of Haig and Haig and gin!

2nd Verse

DUKE:
Just imagine our position,
Think of all the competition
That we've got along the whole Atlancic shore.

SHORTY:
From Southhampton to Miami,
Coast patrols of Uncle Sammy
On our business are declaring open war.

POTTER:
You would think that what we're doing was a crime -
Helping you to have a decent time.
Congressmen and Senators kick up a fuss -
Then they buy from us!

2nd refrain

When our ship comes sailing in -

DUKE:
When our ship of dreams
Through the harbor steams,

ALL:
Then our glad days will begin

POTTER:
Mr. Volstead, pardon our sin.

DUKE:
There's champagne in our cargo that will please ya!

POTTER:
Just give your girl a case and she will squeeze ya!

SHORTY:
(She needn't know we mixed it wich magnesia!)

ALL:
When our ship comes sailing in -
Full of Haig and Haig and gin!

3rd Refrain

When our ship comes sailing in -

DUKE:
Ev'ry worry gone -
How we'll carry on!

ALL
Boy! It's great when dreams come true

DUKE:
And you see your ship on the blue.
But, oh, the risk! It's paining us to tell of it!

SHORTY:
The money that we get is not all vel-e-vet;

POTTER:
The cops take all our profits - that's the hell of it.

ALL:
When our ship comes sailing in -
Full of Haig and Haig and gin!