The Good Ship Kangaroo lyrics

Once I was a waiting man who lived at home at ease

Now I am a mariner that ploughs the stormy seas

I always loved seafaring life I bid my love adieu

I shipped as steward and cook me boys on board the kangaroo

I never thought she would prove false or either prove untrue

As we sailed away from Milford Bay on board the Kangaroo

Think of me oh think of me she mournfully did say

When you are in a foreign land and I am far away

And take this lucky thrupenny bit it will make you bear in mind

This loving trusting faithful heart you left in tears behind

Cheer up, cheer up my own true love don’t weep so bitterly

She sobbed she sighed she choked she cried till she could not say goodbye

I won’t be gone for very long but for a month or two

And when I return again of course I’ll visit you

Our ship it was homeward bound from manys the foreign shore

Manys the foreign present unto my love I bore

I brought tortoises from Tenerife and ties from Timbuktu

A China rat, a Bengal cat and a Bombay cockatoo

Paid off I sought her dwelling on a street above the town

Where an ancient dame upon the line was hanging out her gown

Where is my love? she’s vanished sir about six months ago

With a smart young man who drives the van for Chaplin Son & Co.

Here’s a health to dreams of married life to soap suds and blue

Heart’s true love, patent starch and washing soda too

Ill go into some foreign shore no longer can I stay

With some China Hottentot I’ll throw my life away

My love she was no foolish girl her age it was two score

My love she was no spinster she’d been married twice before

I cannot say it was her wealth that stole my heart away

She was a washer in the laundry for one and nine a day

• Artist:Christy Moore