Wiktionary
n. 1 (context nautical English) A sailing ship that has been set alight and left to drift into an opposing fleet. Famously used by Englishman Sir Francis Drake when fighting the Spanish Armada of 1588. 2 (context vulgar slang English) A diseased prostitute.
Wikipedia
"Fireship" (alternatively titled "The Fire Ship", "The Fireship", or "Dark and Rolling Eye") is a risqué variation of the song " Roving Kind".
The original song, first recorded by the Weavers, told a story of a sailor meeting an attractive girl who agrees to walk out with him, but the evening takes an unpleasant turn. The lyrics are filled with seafaring metaphors. The girl is called a pirate ship who makes him walk the plank.
Not quite a parody, "Fireship" begins the same way and tells a similar story, but the lyrics are more adult-oriented and sexually suggestive. The girl in this version seems to be a prostitute who robs the unfortunate sailor. The girl is called, not a pirate ship, but a fireship, referencing the old naval war tool, the fireship, which was set on fire and let loose among enemy ships. There are variations on the lyrics, but the song ends with the sailor discovering that the encounter has left him with a "fire down below" or a "burning in the mast."
"Fireship" has been recorded by The Whiskey Bards, Pyrates Royale, The Spinners, and Jerry Bryant
Usage examples of "fireship".
Even the Buzzard was wild-eyed in the firelight as he looked up and saw the other two fireships drifting remorselessly upon him.
She towed the two fireships for a short distance, but when the lines that secured them burned through, the Gull left them as she headed slowly down the channel.
This time there are no fireships to drive off the Buzzard and the Dutch frigate.
In the area where they had built the fireships the undergrowth had sprung up again thickly.
When the fireships reached the stakes protecting the dyke, they burned and exploded, but without effecting much damage.
They were met by several hundred Spanish troops, who, as soon as they saw the fireships burn out harmlessly, sallied out from their forts.
At midnight the tide set directly from the English fleet towards the Spaniards, and the fireships, manned by their respective crews, hoisted sail and drove down towards them.
The admiral fired a gun as a signal, and all cut their cables and hoisted sail, and succeeded in getting out to sea before the fireships arrived.
They had the day before been kept at work cleaning and refitting, and the fireships had disturbed them early in the night.
I was rather pleased with the "young fellows", but less so when it appeared that my usefulness might take the form of leading an attack by fireships on the harbour of Bainville, which I happen to know uncommonly well.
Their myths tell of 'gods' who drove through the sky in barks and fireships, descended from the stars, fertilised their ancestors and then returned to the stars again.