I was going to post that lyric (sung by Johnny Horton), but you beat me to it.
So here’s the parody of the song, that came out a few years later, and was actually recorded (I remember hearing it on the radio, but don’t know who sang it, and haven’t heard it since my childhood).
Way back in nineteen-forty-two or maybe forty-three,
I sailed with Captain Tuna, the chicken of the sea.
We didn’t sink the Bismarck , no matter what they say,
For when we seen the German ships, we sailed the other way.
We seen torpedos comin’ and we saw a periscope.
We were full of fightin’ spirit and our souls were full o’ hope.
The captain yelled, “Now hear this!” He really flipped his lid.
We haven’t yet begun to fight. What’s more, we never did.
Oh, we didn’t sink the Bismarck and we didn’t fight at all.
We spend our time in Norfolk and we really had a ball,
Chasin’ after women while our ship was overhauled,
A-livin’ it up on grapefruit juice and sickbay alcohol.
Then they made me a frogman on the demolition team.
I sunk a battleship, a cruiser, and a submarine.
I blew up ammunition dumps. I did my best to please.
I did it all before the Navy sent me overseas.
Tony, our Italian cook, was a-settin’ on the deck,
And we were a-peelin’ ‘taters. We must ‘a’ peeled a peck.
The captain yelled, “Hey, Tony! Is that a U-boat I see?”
Tony says, “It’s not-a my boat; it’s-a no belong to me.”
Oh, we didn’t sink the Bismarck and we didn’t fight at all.
We spend our time in Norfolk and we really had a ball,
Chasin’ after women while our ship was overhauled,
A-livin’ it up on grapefruit juice and sickbay alcohol.
And now the war is over and our story can be told
About our captain’s fightin’ and the young ones and the old.
We stayed in San Francisco , away from the battle scenes.
We spent our time on Treasure Island a-fightin’ the Marines.
Oh, we didn’t sink the Bismarck and we didn’t fight at all.
We spend our time in Norfolk and we really had a ball,
Chasin’ after women while our ship was overhauled,
A-livin’ it up on grapefruit juice and sickbay alcohol.
Homer and Jethro right?
Homer and Jethro right?