The Handsome Cabin Boy
It's of a pretty female as you will understand
Her mind being set on rambling into a foreign land
She dressed herself in sailors clothes and boldly did appear
And she signed on with a captain to sailing for a year.
The captain's wife she being on board, she seemed in great joy
To think her husband had engaged such a handsome cabin boy.
And oft'times she would give him a kiss and with him she would have toyed
But 'twas the captain found out the secret of the handsome cabin boy.
Her cheeks they were like roses, her hair all in a-curl.
The sailors they all smiled and said, he looks just like a girl.
But eating of the captain's biscuit, the maid it did destroy,
And the waist did swell on pretty Nell, the handsome cabin boy.
It was in the Bay of Biscay our gallant ship did plough.
One night among the sailors there came an awful flurry and row.
They tumbled from their hammocks and their sleep it did destroy,
They swore about the groaning of the handsome cabin boy.
It's "Doctor, dear doctor," the cabin boy did cry.
"My time has come, I am undone, and I must surely die!"
The doctor, he came runnin' and a-laughin at the fun
For to think a sailor lad should have a daughter or a son.
Now when the sailors saw the joke, they all did stand and stare.
The child belongs to none of us, they solemnly did swear.
The captain's wife she says to him, "Dear I hope you're in great joy
For it was either you or I betrayed the handsome cabin boy."
So each man took his tot o' rum and drank success to trade
And likewise to the cabin boy who was neither man nor maid.
Here's hopin' the wars don't rise again, our sailors to destroy,
And here's hopin' for a jolly lot more like the handsome cabin boy.
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