"Oh, my ship, my ship is the first of the Hundred and Twenty-ones!"

Which meant her tonnage, but people imagined it meant her guns.

Whenever I went on board he would beckon me down below,

"Come down, Little Buttercup, come" (for he loved to call me so),

And he'd tell of the fights at sea in which he'd taken a part,

And so Lieutenant Belaye won poor Poll Pineapple's heart!

But at length his orders came, and he said one day, said he,

"I'm ordered to sail with the Hot Cross Bun to the German Sea."

And the Portsmouth maidens wept when they learnt the evil day,

For every Portsmouth maid loved good Lieutenant Belaye.