And still I am enabled

To bring up in the rear,
Although I'm quite disabled
And lie in Greenwich tier.
There's schooners in the river
A riding to the chain,
But I shall never, ever

Put out to sea again,

Put out to sea again.

From A Sailor's Garland.

The Press-Gang

Here's the tender1 coming,
Pressing all the men;

O, dear honey,

What shall we do then?

Here's the tender coming,

Off at Shields Bar.

Here's the tender coming,

Full of men of war.

tender: a boat or other small vessel, that "attends" a ship

with men, stores, etc.

Here's the tender coming,
Stealing of my dear;
O, dear honey,

They'll ship you out of here,
They'll ship you foreign,

For that is what it means.
Here's the tender coming,

Full of red marines.

From A Sailor's Garland.

A Sea Dirge

Full fathom five thy father lies:
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Hark! now I hear them,

Ding, dong, bell.

SHAKESPEARE.

2. ITS LAWLESS JOYS

The Old Buccaneer

Oh England is a pleasant place for them that's rich and high,

But England is a cruel place for such poor folks as I;

And such a port for mariners I ne'er shall see

again

As the pleasant Isle of Avès, beside the Spanish main.

There were forty craft in Avès that were both swift and stout,

All furnished well with small arms and cannons round about;

And a thousand men in Avès made laws so fair and free

To choose their valiant captains and obey them loyally.

Thence we sailed against the Spaniard with his hoards of plate and gold,

Which he wrung with cruel tortures from Indian folk of old;

Likewise the merchant captains, with hearts as hard as stone,

Who flog men, and keel-haul them, and starve them to the bone.

O the palms grew high in Avès, and fruits that shone like gold,

And the colibris' and parrots they were gorgeous to behold;

And the negro maids to Avès from bondage fast did flee,

To welcome gallant sailors, a-sweeping in from

sea.

O sweet it was in Avès to hear the landward

breeze,

A-swing with good tobacco in a net between

the trees,

With a negro lass to fan

to the roar

you, while you

listened

Of the breakers on the reef outside, that never

touched the shore.

1 colibris: humming-birds.

"Oh, ship ahoy, and where do you steer?" Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we; "Are

you man-of-war, or privateer?" On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

"I am neither one of the two," said she,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
"I'm a pirate, looking for my fee,”
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

"I'm a jolly pirate, out for gold:"
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;

"I will rummage through your after hold,"

.

On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

The grumbling guns they flashed and roared,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
Till the pirate's masts went overboard,
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

They fired shots till the pirate's deck,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
Was blood and spars and broken wreck,
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.