Great Britain -- History, Naval -- Poetry; Sea songs -- Great Britain
Says Jack, ‘There is very good news; there is peace both by land
and by sea;
Great guns no more shall be used, for we all disbanded must be.’
Says the admiral, ‘That’s very bad news;’ says the captain, ‘My
heart it will break;’
The lieutenant cries, ‘What shall I do? for I know not what course
for to take.’
Says the purser, ‘I’m a gentleman born; my coat is lined with gold,
And my chest is full of the same, by cheating of sailors so bold.’
Says the doctor, ‘I’m a gentleman too, I’m a gentleman of the first
rank;
I will go to some country fair, and there I’ll set up mountebank.’
Says the steward, ‘I’m sorry it’s peace, for I love my ship as my
life,
And by cheating of honest Jack Tars I have plenty of shiners so
bright.’
Says the carpenter, ‘I have a chest, a chest of very good tools;
I will go to some country fair and there I’ll sell three-legged
stools.’
Says the cook, ‘I will go to that fair, and there I will sell all
my fat.’
Says Jack Tar, ‘If I should meet you there, damn me, I’ll pay you
for that;
‘For don’t you remember the time our topsail stuck close to the tack,
And we all stuck fast in the sheet, for want of some of that fat?’
Says the midshipman, ‘I have no trade; I have got my trade for to
chuse:
I will go to St. James Park gate, and there I’ll set blacking of
shoes;
‘And there I will set all the day, at everybody’s call,
And every one that comes by, “Do you want my nice shining balls?”’
Says Jack, ‘I will take to the road, for I’d better do that than
do worse;
And every one that comes by, I’ll cry, “Damn you, deliver your
purse.”’
_THE SAILOR’S COMPLAINT._
‘You are welcome to London, dear Jack.
What news have you brought us, I pray?’
‘From Portsmouth I have lately come,
And now I am discharg’d from the sea.
I have never a copper, brave boy;
I’ve wages and prize money due.’
‘Damme Jack, truly do say,
You will be hard set to get it, it’s true.’
‘Dear shipmate, I’ve been here a month,
And cannot get mine for the truth;
On board a man-of-war I went
When I was a frolicsome youth.
My king and my country to serve
I fought like a sailor so bold.
Now that the wars are all over
I really cannot get my gold.
‘To a navy officer each day I did go;
I’ve been both hungry and dry.
My money I then did demand.
“You cannot have it,” they cry.
My life I have ventur’d for gold,
My king and my country to serve.
Now the wars are all over
Brave sailors may perish and starve.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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