SS 11 15 Men on a Dead Man's Chest
Unknown
Chorus
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.
Drink and the devil had done for the rest,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.
The captain lay with his head in gore,
The scullion's axe his skull had shore,
And the mate was stabbed six times four,
And there they lay, God damn their eyes!,
Staring up at Paradise,
Their souls gone just the contrawise,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
'Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
And a gaping hole in a battered head
And the scuppers glut of a rolling red.
And there they lay, while soggy skies
Dripped down in their upstaring eyes,
In murk sunset or foul sunrise.
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
'Twas a comely maid on a bunker cot,
With a dirk slit sheer through the bosom spot.
And the lace stiff dry with a purplish rot.
Was she wench or was she jade,
Or was she just some scutterin' maid?
She dared the knife and she took the blade.
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
We wrapped them all in a mainsail tight
With twice ten turns of a hawser's bight,
And heaved them o'er and out of sight.
With a "yo ho ho" and a "fare the well"
'Twas a sullen drop to a sullen swell,
Ten fathoms down on the road to Hell,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!