The Derelict [English translation]
The Derelict [English translation]
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Drink and to hell with the rest
The (ship's) mate was impaled on the bosun's pike
The boson hit him in the head with a marlinspike
And the cook's throat was bruised alike
He was choked to death using both hands;
And there they lay, all real dead men
Like in the morning after a drinking binge.
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Fifteen men from the crew's roster
They are dead and 'to hell' the rest are silent
The captain lie dead with his head bashed in
The servant's axe had sunk into his cheek
And the servant, he was stabbed four times
And there they lie dead as the raining skies
Dripped drops down on dead staring eyes
In a gloomy sunset and evil sunrise
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Fifteen men with rigor and empty (of life)
Ten of the crew were guilty of the crimes
It was a cutlass slash or a bullet shot
Or a huge wound in a battered head
And the scuppers were full of blood
And there they lie, yes, cursed I saw
They were looking up at paradise (heaven)
All the dead were tied just to be sure
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum.
Fifteen men of them good and honest
Every sailor could have sailed with Old Pew,
There were many chests of Spanish gold
There was a ton of metal plate in middle hold
And the cabins yell for attention for unknown loot,
And the dead lie there that took the treasure
With open dead eyes and speechless lips
While we divided the loot in equal shares,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Yet more was seen through a sternlight's screen...
Certain traces where a woman had been
It was a cheaply built creak of a bunker cot
With a dagger stuck deep in the chest
And shirt lace stiff from a dried blood spot
Oh it was a woman or a fear shaken maiden
That pulled out a knife and stabbed herself
By God! She had guts for a fearless flirt
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Drink to the devil and to hell with the rest
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
We wrapped all the bodies tight in a mainsail
Tied with twenty turns of the largest line
And we threw them over the side and...gone
With a Hey-Throw-Go! and a goodbye
And a brief plunge in a darken wave
Sixty feet deep on the way to hell,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
- Artist:Abney Park
- Album:Æther Shanties