An illustration reprinted in Songs of the Sea by Stan Hugill, page 173.
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An illustration reprinted in Songs of the Sea by Stan Hugill, page 173.
Oh, what do you do with a drunken sailor when he’s drunk as drunk can be?
Get your money from the crimp and send the bastard out to sea.
Chorus:
Way-hey, up he rises, way-hey up he goes!
Way-hey, up he rises, high aloft now there he goes!
Now Rambo was a west coast bargeman headed down to ‘Frisco Town;
Looking for a fallen angel, round in quarter, bluff in bow. (CHO)
And he went around from bar and brothel, drunk and whoring through the town;
Met up with a callow fellow, later known as Shanghai Brown. (CHO)
And when he awoke aboard next morning, head a throbbing, full of dread,
They rammed his head in a pail of water and left him on the deck for dead. (CHO)
For the sailors had no pity on him; pity’s not the sailor’s way;
Pity’s only for the landsman, not for sailors on the sea. (CHO)
And they beat his butt with a tarry rope, and they beat his butt and they beat it well;
They beat his butt with a tarry rope, just to hear him howl like the hounds of hell. (CHO)
And they sent him o’er the sea to China, four months out and three months back;
He took his knocks and took his kicks, took ‘em well and gave ‘em back. (CHO)
And Rambo he became a sailor, French braid covered up with tar;
Tars his hands to climb the rigging, and to go out on the yard. (CHO)
Then Rambo, he became a shellback, ‘round the horn did sail he;
Been to Callao and Valpo, hauling guano on the sea. (CHO)
And when they bring on board a newbie, drunk, oh, drunk as a Scottish lord;
They wash him down with salt sea water and watch him throw up overboard. (CHO)
But Rambo has no pity on him, pity’s not the sailor’s way;
There’s no pity on the ocean, nor for sailors on the sea. (CHO)
And he beats his ass with a doubled rope, and he beats his ass and he beats it well;
He beats his ass with a doubled rope, just to hear him howl like the hounds of hell!
Way-hey, up he rises, way-hey up he goes!
Way-hey, up he rises, high aloft now there he goes!
Way-hey, up he rises, way-hey up he goes!
Way-hey, up he rises, high aloft now there he goes!