I. Unto his hungry mate, --"Ho! gossip! for Bude Haven: There be corpses six or eight.Cawk! cawk! the crew and skipper, Are wallowing in the sea:So there's a savoury supper For my old dame and me."
II. The shore hath wreckers bold;Would rend the yelling seamen, From the clutching billows hold.Cawk! cawk! they'd bound for booty Into the dragon's den:And shout, for `death or duty,' If the prey were drowning men."
III. At the guess our grandame gave:You might call them Boanerges, From the thunder of their wave.And mockery followed after The sea-bird's jeering brood:That filled the skies with laughter, From Lundy Light to Bude.
IV. "I am fourscore years and ten:Yet never in Bude Haven, Did I croak for rescued men. --They will save the Captain's girdle, And shirt, if shirt there be:But leave their blood to curdle, For my old dame and me."
V. Unto his hungry mate, --"Ho! gossip! for Bude Haven: There be corpses six or eight.Cawk! cawk! the crew and skipper, Are wallowing in the sea:O what a savoury supper, For my old dame and me."
