More rum for the pirates!

FIFTEEN MEN ON DEAD MAN'S CHEST

                      -Young Ewing Allison

        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 Mate was fixed by the bo'sun's pike,
        And the bo'sun brained by a marlin-spike,
        And the cookie's throat was marked belike!
                Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!

        Fifteen men of the whole ship's list,
                Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!
        Dead and bedamned and their souls gone whist
                Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!
        The skipper lay with his nob in gore
        Where the scullion's axe his cheek had shore
        And the scullion he was stabbed times four!
                Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!
        And there they lay, and the soggy skies
        Dripped ceaselessly in staring eyes
        By murk sunset and by foul sunrise!
                Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!

        Fifteen men of 'em stiff and stark,
                Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!
        Ten of the crew bore the murder mark
                Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!
        'Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
        Or a gaping hole in a battered head,
        And the scuppers glut of a rotting red!
                Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!
        And there they lay, aye, [bad word] their eyes,
        Their lookouts clapped on Paradise;
        Their souls gone just the contrariwise!
                Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!

        Fifteen men of 'em good and true
                Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!
        Every man Jack could have sailed with Old Pew!
                Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!
        There was chest on chest of Spanish gold
        And a ton of plate in the middle hold
        And the cabin's riot of loot untold!
                Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!
        And there they lay that had took the plum
        With sightless eyes and with lips struck dumb
        And we shared all by rule o'thumb!
                Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!

        More was seen thru the stern light's screen
                Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!
        Chartings ondoubt where a woman had been
                Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!

        flimsy shift on a bunker cot
        With a dirk slit sheer thru the bosom spot
        And the lace stiff-dry in a purplish rot!
                Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!
        Or was she wench, or shuddering maid,
        She dared the knife, and she took the blade;
        Faith, she was a plucky jade!
                Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!

        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!
        We wrapped 'em all in a mainsail tight
        With twice ten turns of a hawser's bight
        And we heaved 'em over and out of sight!
                Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!
        With a Yo-Heave-Ho! and a fare-thee-well,
        And a sudden plunge in a sudden swell;
        Ten fathoms along the Road To Hell!
                Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!