"Anchors Aweigh" is the fight song of the United States Naval Academy and unofficial march song of the United States Navy. It was composed in 1906 by Charles A. Zimmermann with lyrics by Alfred Hart Miles. When he composed "Anchors Aweigh", Zimmermann was a lieutenant and had been bandmaster of the United States Naval Academy Band since 1887. Miles was midshipman first class at the academy, in the class of 1907, and had asked Zimmermann to assist him in composing a song for that class, to be used as a football march. Another academy midshipman, Royal Lovell (class of 1926), later wrote what would be adopted into the song as its third verse. Another member of the Naval Academy Band, Willy Perlitz Jr., assisting in writing the music for the different instruments used in "Anchors Aweigh".
"Weigh anchor" is an old English sailors' expression first referenced in literature in John Dryden's The Tempest, 1670. It is an order that a ship's anchors be raised, To "weigh anchor" is to bring all anchor(s) aboard the vessel in preparation for departure. In response to the order, the phrase "anchors aweigh" reports back that all anchors are clear of the sea bottom; therefore the ship is officially under way.
"Anchors aweigh" is often misspelled as "Anchor's away", leading to confusing the terms, and sometimes misunderstanding the order as meaning "to drop anchor".[citation needed] Confusion may also occur over two correct spellings typically encountered: that is, "anchor's" with an apostrophe, and without ("anchors"). Here the phrase "anchor's aweigh", (denoting a single anchor plus the contraction of the verb "is") means: this anchor is raised. The single phrase must be distinguished from the plural "anchors aweigh", which reports that all anchors of the ship are raised.
Although the original (now archaic) "aweigh" is verbal and transitive, the "aweigh" used now is adjectival/adverbial in nature and meaning.[1][2] "Weigh" as a verb means to "bear" or "move", thus giving it several shades of meaning and derivation, including "weight" or "heaviness".
Many arrangements of the song exist, but the original composition by Zimmermann from 1906, is labelled as a "March and Two-Step" and consists of a lengthy instrumental march introductory section, which then becomes a two-step with lyrical accompaniment approximately halfway into the piece.[3]
Many arrangements of "Anchors Aweigh" exist today, one arrangement by Paul V. Yoder often sees use by military bands, such as those of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, the Bundeswehr, and other nations' militaries.[4][5][6][7][8]