ballad of jon silver

we were schooner rigged and rakish with a long and lissome hull

and we flew the pretty colors of the crossbones and the skull

wed 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

wed a long brass gun amidships like a well-conducted ship

we had each a brace of pistols and a cutlass at the hip

its 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 peoples 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