We were schooner rigged and rakish with a long and lissome hull
And we flew the pretty colors of the crossbones and the skull
We’d a big black Jolly Roger flappin’ grimly at the fore
And we sailed the Spanish waters in the happy days of yore
So we sailed with booty on the board
Lived a life of whisky and the sword
Plundered them and pretty pranks we played
Laughed at them and then we sailed away
We’d a long brass gun amidships like a well-conducted ship,
We had each a brace of pistols and a cutlass at the hip,
It’s a point that tells against us and a fact to be deplored,
But we chased the goodly merchant men and laid their ships aboard
So we sailed with booty on the board
Lived a life of whisky and the sword
Plundered them and pretty pranks we played
Laughed at them and then we sailed away
Then the dead men fouled the scuppers
And the wounded filled the chains
And the paintwork all was spatter-dashed,
With other people’s brains.
She was boarded she was looted
She was scuttled till she sank
And the pale survivors left us
By the medium of the plank…