Handsome Cabin Boy

Handsome Cabin Boy - Ewan MacColl

It's of a pretty female

As you may understand

Her mind being bent for rambling

Unto some foreign land

She dressed herself in sailor's clothes

Or so it does appear

And she hired with a captain

To serve him for a year

The captain's wife she being on board

She seemed in great joy

To think her husband had engaged

Such a handsome cabin boy

That now and then she'd slip him a kiss

And she'd have liked to toy

But it was the captain found out the secret

Of the handsome cabin boy

Her cheeks they were like roses

And her hair rolled in a curl

The sailors often smiled and said

He looked just like a girl

But eating of the captain's biscuit

Her color did destroy

And the waist did swell of pretty Nell

The handsome cabin boy

It was in the bay of Biscay

Our gallant ship did plow

One night among the sailors

Was a fearful flurry and row

They tumbled from their hammocks

For their sleep it did destroy

And they sworn about the groaning

Of the handsome cabin boy

Oh doctor dear oh doctor

The cabin boy did cry

"My time has come I am undone

And I will surely die"

The doctor come a runnin'

And a smilin' at the fun

To think a sailor lad should have

A daughter or a son

The sailors when they saw the joke

They all did stand and stare

The child belonged to none of them

They solemnly did swear

The captain's wife she says to him

"My dear I wish you joy

For it's either you or me's betrayed

The handsome cabin boy"

So each man took your tot of rum

And drink success to trade

And likewise to the cabin boy

That was neither man nor maid

Here's hoping the wars don't rise again

Our sailors to destroy

And here's hoping for a jolly lot more

Like the handsome cabin boy