During the late Georgian period in Britain, life at sea, and the love lives of sailors, provided singers and song-writers with an endless source of material. Their songs may have been primarily thought of as entertainment, but in this age of war with France there was an implicit political agenda behind many of them. As Mark Philp writes, during the period 1793 to 1815 ‘the war was linked to an unprecedented level of national mobilization in which music and song played a major role’. While some songs criticized the war, others aimed to recruit volunteers and encourage courageous and ‘manly’ behaviour. Cheap printed copies of such songs were widely available, often subsidized by the government. The recurrence of the personal lives of sailors and their families in the songs reflects the pervasive influence of the continual state of war on the lives not only of the men serving in the military but also of their lovers, wives and children. These songs often make a direct appeal to patriotic duty and present a romantic ideal of the fidelity of both men and women.

The conflict between the Navy's voracious need for highly mobile manpower during this period of war and colonial expansion, and the social stability represented at home by marital fidelity and family cohesion, was not lost on the authorities. The utility of popular music in reconciling these aims was perceived at the highest levels. In 1803, musician Charles Dibdin (1745–1814) was granted a government pension of L200 per annum in recognition of the importance of the songs he had been writing for decades.