James Frederick Swift (28 December 1847,

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

– 9 January 1931,

Wallasey Wallasey () is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England; until 1974, it was part of the historic county of Cheshire. It is situated at the mouth of the River Mersey, at the north-eastern corner of the Wirral Pe ...

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

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

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 cho ...

. It is a possibility that Swift composed this work on

seamanship Seamanship is the art, knowledge and competence of operating a ship, boat or other craft on water. The'' Oxford Dictionary'' states that seamanship is "The skill, techniques, or practice of handling a ship or boat at sea." It involves topics a ...

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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* {{IMSLP, id=Marks, Godfrey 1847 births 1931 deaths English organists English composers Musicians from Merseyside 19th-century English musicians