X:1
T:The Ship in Distress
B:Oxford Book of Sea Songs, ISBN 0-19-282155-5
Z:George Butterworth, 1907
F:http://www.folkinfo.org/songs
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w:You sea-men bold_ that plough the o-cean, What dan-gers lands-men do
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w:ne-ver know The suns gangs down over old Eng-lands nat-ion; No tongue_ can tell what
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w:you go through. Through bit-ter storms in the height of bat-_tle, Now
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w:mark you well_ what I do say Where thund-' ring can-nons loud-ly
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w:rat-tle There's no back door_ to run a-way
W:You seamen bold that plough the ocean,
W:What dangers landsmen do never know.
W:The sun gangs over old England's nation;
W:No tongue can tell what you go through.
W:Through bitter storms in the height of battle,
W:Now mark you well what I do say,
W:Where thund'ring cannons loudly rattle
W:There's no back door to run away.
W:
W:Of a merchant ship there was a captain;
W:A long time they had been drove on sea.
W:The weather proved to them so uncertain,
W:Which brought them to extremity.
W:Nothing on board poor souls to nourish,
W:Nor to strengthen their feeble arms;
W:The whole ship's crew were nearly starving,
W:The men were nothing but skin and bone.
W:
W:The cats and dogs how they did eat them
W:Hunger proving to them severe;
W:Captain and men of one direction
W:They all of them went equal shares.
W:At length, at length the hour came on them,
W:The hour came on them most bitterly.
W:Poor fellows all stood titter totter,
W:Casting lots which of them should die.
W:
W:The lot was cast on one poor fellow
W:Which had a wife at home on shore,
W:But to think of eating our fellow creatures
W:It was that which grieved us ten times more.
W:'I am willing to die,' this young man answered,
W:'But to the topmast haste away,
W:For perhaps some help you may discover
W:While I unto the Lord do pray.'
W:
W:The captain said he spied a vessel
W:About a league from us or more.
W:Some signals of distress were fired
W:And soon for us away she bore;
W:And soon we got provisions plenty,
W:And far from all such deadly fear.
W:To see such pity they took upon us
W:You could not help but shed a tear.
W:
W:But now we're happy in old England
W:And far from all such deadly fear
W:We'll drink unto our wives and sweethearts
W:And unto all we love so dear.
W:May God protect all jolly sailors
W:And all that plough the raging main;
W:May they never see no more such trials
W:And never know the like again.