Fifteen men on the Dead Man's chest
Drink and the Devil had done for the rest
The
mate
was fixed with the
bo'sun
's pike
And the bo'sun brained with a
marlin-spike
Cookie's throat was marked belike
It had been gripped by fingers ten
And there they lay, all good dead men
Like break o' day in a boozin' den
Yo-Ho-Ho and a bottle of rum!
Fifteen men of the whole ship's list
Dead and bedamned and the rest gone whist
The skipper lay with his nob in gore
Where the scullion's axe his cheek had shore
And the
scullion
he'd been stabbed times four
And there they lay, and the soggy skies
Dripped all day long up staring eyes
By murk sunset and by foul sunrise--
Yo-Ho-Ho and a bottle of rum!
Fifteen men of 'em stiff and stark
Ten of the crew with a
murder mark
'Twas a cutlass swipe or an
ounce of lead
Or a yawning hole in a battered head
And the scupper's a-glut with a rotting red
And there they lay, aye, damn me eyes
Their lookouts clapped on Paradise
And their souls gone just as contrariwise--
Yo-Ho-Ho and a bottle of rum!
Fifteen men of 'em good and true
Every man-jack could 'a sailed with
Old Pew
There was just no chest full of Spanish gold
With a ton of plate in the middle hold
The cabins a riot of loot untold--
And there they lay that took the plum
With sightless glare and lips struck dumb
While we shared all by the rule of thumb
--
Yo-Ho-Ho and a bottle of rum!
More was seen through a stern light screen
Charting, no doubt, where a woman had been
A flimsy shift on a bunkered cot
With a thin dirk slot through the bosom spot
And the lace stiff dry with a purplish blot--
Oh, was she a wench, some shuddering maid
That dared the knife and took the blade
By God, she was tough for a
plucky jade
--
Yo-Ho-Ho and a bottle of rum!
Fifteen men on the 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!
Wrapped them all in the mainsail tight
Twice ten turns of a hawser's bight
And we
heaved them over
and out of sight
With a yo-heave-ho and a fare-ye-well
A sudden plunge in a sullen swell
Ten fathoms deep on the road to hell--
Yo-Ho-Ho and a bottle of rum!
