Derelict

DERELICT
Words by Robert Louis Stevenson and Young E. Allison, published in full form in the Louisville Courier-Journal in 1891. Music Arr. By Dylan Blackthorn, with inspiration form Skip Henderson (RIP).

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Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest
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Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
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Drink and the devil had done for the rest
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Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.
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A bottle of Rum…

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The mate was fixed by the bosun’s pike
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The bosun brained with a marlinspike
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And cookey’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 boozing ken.
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Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
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a bottle of rum.

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

Fifteen men of ’em stiff and stark – Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Ten of the crew had the murder mark! – Yo ho 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 scuppers’ glut with a rotting red
And there they lay, aye, damn my eyes
Looking up at paradise
All souls bound just contrariwise
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

Bottle of rum…
Fifteen men of ’em good and true – Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Ev’ry man jack could ha’ sailed with Old Pew, – Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
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 they lay there that took the plum
With sightless glare and their lips struck dumb
While we shared all by the rule of thumb,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! Bottle of rum…

More was seen through a sternlight screen… – Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Chartings undoubt where a woman had been – Yo ho 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
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. Bottle of rum…

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 ho and a bottle of rum.
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
Ten fathoms deep on the road to hell,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!