James Frederick Swift (28 December 1847,

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

– 9 January 1931,

Wallasey Wallasey () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is at the mouth of the River Mersey, on the north-eastern corner of the Wirral Peninsula. It lies within the Historic counties of England, historic county bou ...

) was an English organist and composer. He mostly worked for religious establishments such as St Andrew's Church in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

for 10 years, but he also composed around 200 non-religious songs and ballads under the pseudonym, ''Godfrey Marks''. One of his most famous songs is

Sailing, Sailing "Sailing, Sailing" is a song written in 1880 by Godfrey Marks, a pseudonym of British organist and composer James Frederick Swift (1847–1931). It is also known as "Sailing" or "Sailing, sailing, over the bounding main" (the first line of its chor ...

. It is a possibility that Swift composed this work on

seamanship Seamanship is the skill, art, competence (human resources), competence, and knowledge of operating a ship, boat or other craft on water. The'' Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford Dictionary'' states that seamanship is "The skill, techniques, o ...

based on his inspiration from ''Nancy Lee'' by Michael Maybrick, despite that his daughter, Ruby Gertrude Swift, expressed that his father had never been close to seafaring activities. One of his famous religious songs includes ''Ernstein''.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Swift, James 1847 births 1931 deaths English organists English composers Musicians from Merseyside 19th-century English musicians