Abney Park - The Derelict lyrics

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