Pepper

The mate was fixed by the bosun’s pike
The bosun brained with a marlinspike
And cookey’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 boozing ken
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
And there they lay, and the soggy skies
Dripped down in up-staring eyes
In murk sunset and foul sunrise

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 and a bottle of rum!
Fifteen men on whole ship’s list
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Dead and be damned and the rest gone whist
Yo ho and a bottle of rum!

‘Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
Or a yawing hole in a battered head
And the scupper’s glut with a rotting red
And there they lay, aye, damn my eyes
Looking up at paradise
All souls bound just contrawise
There was chest on chest of Spanish gold
With a ton of plate in the middle hold
And the cabins riot of stuff untold
And there they lay that took the plum
With sightless glare and their lips struck dumb
While we shared all by the rule of thumb

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 and a bottle of rum!
Fifteen men on whole ship’s list
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Dead and be damned and the rest gone whist
Yo ho and a bottle of rum!

‘Twas a flimsy shift on a bunker cot
With a dirk slit sheer through the bosom spot
And the lace stiff dry in a purplish blot
Oh was she wench or some shudderin’ maid
That dared the knife and took the blade
By God! she had stuff for a plucky jade
We wrapped ‘em all in a mains’l tight
With twice ten turns of a hawser’s bight
And we heaved ‘em over and out of sight
With a Yo-Heave-Ho! And a fare-you-well
And a sudden plunge in the sullen swell
Full fathom deep on the road to hell!

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 and a bottle of rum!
Fifteen men on whole ship’s list
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Dead and be damned and the rest gone whist
Yo ho and a bottle of rum!

Hagnir / Allison & Waller (XVII century)