Cawsand Bay
In Cawsand Bay lying,
The Blue Peter flying,
And all hands turned up for the anchor to weigh;
There came a young lady,
As fresh as a May day,
And modestly hailing, this damsel did say:
‘I want my young man, there,
Do you hear! bear a han’ there,
To hoist me on board, or to send him to me;
His name’s Henry Grady,
And I am a lady
Come off to prevent him from going to sea.’
The captain, his honour,
When he looked upon her,
Ran down the ship’s side for to help her aboard;
Says he with emotion,
‘What son of the ocean
Can thus be looked after by Helena Ford?’
The lady made answer:
‘That there is my man, sir,
I’ll make him as fine and as free as a lord;’
‘No, no,’ says the cap’n,
‘That can’t very well happen,
I’ve got sailing orders; you, sir, stay on board.’
‘Avast,’ says the lady,
‘Don’t you heed him, Henry Grady,
He once was your captain, but now you’re at large;
You shan’t stay aboard here,
For all that man’s order;’
Then out of her bosom she hauled his discharge.
Says the captain, says he now:
‘I’m blowed, but he’s free now’;
Says Jack, ‘Let old Weatherface keep all my clothes;’
On shore then he steered her,
And the lads they all cheered her,
But the captain was jealous, and looked down his nose.
Then she got a shore tailor
To rig her young sailor
In tight Nankin breeches, and a blue long-tailed coat;
And he looked like a squire
For all to admire,
With a dimity handkerchief tied round his throat.
And they had a house greater
Than e’er a first-rater,
With servants in uniform handing the drink;
And a garden to go in
Where the flowers was a-blowin’,
The daisy, the buttercup, lily and pink.
And he got education
Quite fit for his station,
For you know we are never too old for to learn;
And his shipmates they found him,
With his young ones around him,
All chips of the old block, from the stem to the stern.