Oh, ‘list, oh ‘list to my sorrowful lay,
And attention give to my song I pray,
When you’ve heard it all you’ll say,
That I’m an unfortunate tailor.
Oh once I was as happy as a bird in a tree,
My Sarah was all in the world to me,
Now I’m cut out by a son of the sea,
And she’s left me here to bewail her.
Why did my Sarah serve so?
No more will I stitch, no more will I sew,
My thimble and my needle to the winds I’ll throw,
And I’ll go enlist for a sailor.
Now my days were honey and my nights were the same,
‘Till a man called Cobb from the ocean came,
With his long black beard and his masculine frame,
The captain on board of a whaler.
Well, he spent his money both frank and free,
With his tales of the land and his songs from the sea,
And he stole my Sarah’s heart from me,
And blighted the hopes of a tailor.
Oh, once I was with her when in came Cobb,
«Avast» he cried, «You lubbery swab!
If you don’t knock off, I’ll scuttle your nob!»
And Sarah smiled at the sailor.
So now I’ll cross the raging sea,
For Sarah’s proved untrue to me,
My heart’s locked up and she’s the key,
What a very unfeeling jailor!
And so now, kind friends, I’ll bid you adieu,
No more my woes shall trouble you,
I’ll travel the country through and through,
And I’ll go enlist for a sailor.
BARRETT’S PRIVATEERS
Oh, the year was 1778, HOW I WISH I WAS IN SHERBROOKE NOW!
A letter of marque come from the king,
To the scummiest vessel I’d ever seen,
CHORUS:
God damn them all!
I was told we’d cruise the seas for American gold
We’d fire no guns-shed no tears
Now I’m a broken man on a Halifax pier
The last of Barrett’s Privateers.
Oh, Elcid Barrett cried the town, HOW I WISH I WAS . . .
For twenty brave men all fishermen who
Would make for him the Antelope’s crew
(chorus)
The Antelope sloop was a sickening sight,
She’d a list to the port and and her sails in rags
And the cook in scuppers with the staggers and the jags
(chorus)
On the King’s birthday we put to sea,
We were 91 days to Montego Bay
Pumping like madmen all the way
(chorus)
On the 96th day we sailed again,
When a bloody great Yankee hove in sight
With our cracked four pounders we made to fight
(chorus)
The Yankee lay low down with gold,
She was broad and fat and loose in the stays
But to catch her took the Antelope two whole days
(chorus)
Then at length we stood two cables away,
Our cracked four pounders made an awful din
But with one fat ball the Yank stove us in
(chorus)
The Antelope shook and pitched on her side,
Barrett was smashed like a bowl of eggs
And the Maintruck carried off both me legs
(chorus)
So here I lay in my 23rd year,
It’s been 6 years since we sailed away
And I just made Halifax yesterday
(chorus)