There are several versions of the story behind this nursery rhyme, ranging from medieval to modern sources and with varying degrees of modesty. Remember; these are stories that have been passed on verbally with everyone adding their own version, so I made this one up - which is perhaps as valid as any of the others.
THE TWELFTH TALE OF THE MERRY MEN OF GOTHAM
"Three wise men of Gotham, they went to sea in a bowl,
And if the bowl had been stronger my song had been longer."
Gotham is a village just a few miles from the sea but it might as well have been a hundred miles for all the skills that the villagers had as fishermen. Yet every time they visited the markets in Bexhill and Hastings, they were envious of the fishermen’s catch and resented paying money for fish that the fishermen got for free, just by throwing a few nets into the sea.
Annoyed at being taken for fools in this way by the fishermen, the men of Gotham decided to take to the sea themselves. They didn’t have a boat but they did have an enormous half barrel which they tried out on the village pond and found it floated well. So the men got together and carried the great tub – complete with fishing nets - down to the beach at Norman’s Bay.
There was not a lot of space in the tub. They had to have room for the nets and the fish they would catch so only 2 or 3 men could get into the boat. Now that the villagers could see the waves and the power of the sea, their great fishing expedition looked a lot less appealing and nobody volunteered to get in the boat. One of the big strong men looked at some of the smaller, punier men and suggested that 3 small men could fit in the boat, and the more ‘fishermen’ there were, the more fish they would catch. The 3 smallest men were the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker, so the other villagers lifted them into the barrel and they pushed it out to sea. Away it began to bob, carried out to sea by the tide.
But as it was shaped like a bowl and they had neither oars or rudder, the little vessel was soon upturned by a wave and the three men drowned.