Capital Ship

A capital ship for an ocean trip is a rattling window blind.
No gale that blew dismayed her crew nor troubled the captain's mind.
The man at the wheel was made to feel contempt for the wildest blow
And it often appeared when the weather had cleared he was down in his bunk below.


Ch: So, blow you winds, high-ho!
A rovin' I will go.
I'll stay no more on England's shore, so let the music play.
I'm off on the morning train, across the raging main:
I'm off to my love with a boxing glove,
Ten thousand miles away.


The bosun's mate was very sedate yet fond of amusement, too.
For he played hopscotch with the starboard watch while the captain tickled the crew,
And the gunner we had was apparently mad, for he sat on the after-rail
And he fired salutes with the captain's boots in the teeth of a booming gale.


Chorus


The captain sat on the commodore's hat and dined in a royal way
On toasted figs and little roast pigs and gunnery bread each day.
But the cook was Dutch and behaved as such for the food he gave the crew
Was a couple of tons of hot crossed buns served up with sugar and glue.


Chorus


Now we all grew ill, as mariners will, on a diet that's cheap and rude.
We shivered and shook as we dipped the cook in a tub of his gluesome food.
All nautical pride was laid aside and we cast the vessel ashore
On the Gulliby Isles where the poo-poo smiles and the alagamazers roar.


Chorus


Composed of sand was that favored land and trimmed with cinnamon straws
And pink and blue was the pleasing hue of the tickle-toe-teasers' claws.
We sat on the edge of a sandy ledge and shot at the whistling bee,
While the barnicle bats wore waterproof hats as they danced on the shining sea.


Chorus


On rugabug bark from dawn to dark we dined 'til we all had grown
Uncommonly shrunk when a Chinese junk came in from the Torrible Zone.
She was stubby and square but we didn't much care and we cheerly put to sea
And left the crew of the junk to chew on the bark of the rugabug tree.


Chorus



Part of the Dogwatch Nautical Band Site at http://www.well.com/user/cwj/dogwatch/.

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