THE HANDSOME CABIN BOY





It's of a pretty female as you will understand

Her mind was set on rambling into a foreign land

She dressed herself in man's attire and boldly did appear

And she engaged with a captain to serve him for a year.



The captain's lady being on board, she seemed in great joy

To think that the captain had engaged such a handsome cabin boy

And many's the time she cuddled and kissed, and she would have

liked to toy

But 'twas the captain found out the secret of the handsome cabin

boy



Her cheeks they were like roses, her hair was all a-curl

The sailors often smiled and said, he looks just like a girl

But eating the captain's biscuit, well, her color it did destroy

And the waist did swell of pretty Nell, the handsome cabin boy.

As through the Bay of Biscay our gallant ship did plough

One night among the sailors there came an awful row

They tumbled from their hammocks for their rest it did destroy

They complained about the groaning of the handsome cabin boy



It's doctor, dearest doctor, the cabin boy did cry

My time has come, I am undone, surely I must die

The doctor ran with all his might, a-smiling at the fun

For to think a cabin boy could have a daughter or a son



Now when the sailors heard the joke, they all began to stare

The child belongs to none of us, they solemnly did swear

And the lady to the captain said "My dear I wish you joy

For it was either you or I betrayed the handsome cabin boy."



Come all of you bold fellows and we'll drink success to trade

And likewise to the cabin boy who was neither man nor maid

And if the wars should rise again, us sailors to destroy

Well, here's hoping for a jolly lot more like the handsome cabin

boy.

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A popular broadside ballad of shipboard carryings-on. This

version from Louis Killen; it derives from that sung by one of

the greatest ballad singers of all times, Jeannie Robertson of

Aberdeen.



Recorded by John Roberts and Tony Barrand on "Mellow with Ale

from the Horn", FHR-04

@transvestite @sailor

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