The sea's a place for sailormen in fair or stormy weather;
'Round the world and back again they're all good mates together.
We went ashore on pay day night, Bill Dykes, the mate, and me;
We cruised about till we got tight an' then went on a spree.
We veered an' hauled an' tacked an' beat, an' shifted course some more,
Till we fetched up on Bleecher Street, an' steered for Jersy shore —
An' we wuz ridin' even keel, consid'rin where we'd been,
Till a pair of cops put up a deal an' tried t' run us in.
An' Bill, he sez: "'Turn to' has gone, I think I heard 'er blow,"
An' he winked at me, an' I wuz on, an' then he sez: "Les' go!"
So Bill, he took th' biggest one, an' 'course I took th' other,
An' s' help me, when th' job wuz done y' couldn't tell one from t'other.
Th' port side light o' one wuz green, an' th' starb'ard showin' red,
An' t'other wuz bleedin' in b'tween, an' I thought he wuz dead,
Fer I downed him cold in th' mornin' watch with his wood b'layin' pin;
An' th' top uv his head wuz an awful splotch an' his jaw wuz busted in.
'N then Bill, he sez: "Tis well b'low," an' he cast his weather eye
Aroun' the street, an' he sez: "Les' go, an' leave th' lubbers die."
Two sailors rolling down the dock, and making heavy weather,
A-hoisted in with tackle and block, and into the brig together.
Notes
From SEA LANES, edited by Burt Franklin Jenness, published by The Cornhill Publishing Co., Boston, US, © 1921, pp. 79-80.
This poem is a vivid description of a glorious spree in sailortown, replete with nautical jargon, and I think it might be appropriately sung to the tune of the old whaling shanty ""It's Advertised in Boston" (as collected by Frederick Pease Harlow). There's also some nice internal rhyming in this poem.
"Turn to" is the traditional call for changing watch aboard ship.
Charley Noble
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