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