C
Communicated by Mr W. Chappell, as noted down by him from the singing of men dressed as sailors, on Tower Hill. Subsequently printed, with a few variations, in Old English Ditties, Oxenford and Macfarren, I, 206.
1
One Friday morn as we’d set sail,
And our ship not far from land,
We there did espy a fair mermaid,
With a comb and a glass in her hand, her hand, her hand,
With a comb and a glass in her hand.
While the raging seas did roar,
And the stormy winds did blow,
And we jolly sailor-boys were up, up aloft,
And the landsmen were lying down below,
And the landlubbers all down below, below, below,
And the landlubbers all down below.
2
Then up spoke the captain of our gallant ship,
Who at once did our peril see;
I have married a wife in fair London town,
And tonight she a widow will be.’
3
And then up spoke the litel cabin-boy,
And a fair-haired boy was he;
‘I’ve a father and mother in fair Portsmouth town,
And this night she will weep for me.’
4
Now three times round goes our gallant ship,
And three times round went she;
For the want of a life-boat they all were drownd,
As she went to the bottom of the sea.