The Devil's Crew

They ‘pressed me on His Majesty’s frigate

The H.M.S. Carew,

It only took me a day to find

I was lodged with the Devils’s crew,

The Captain, ‘Black Jack’ Hawkins

Was a gentleman by name,

But on the ship he used the whip

To his undying shame.

I slipped and fell from the foremast arm

When I caught my foot in a stay,

And though a net kept me safe from harm

That wasn’t the Captain’s way,

He said I’d swim for my mortal sin

Told the crew to rope me through,

Then dragged me over the side and said,

‘We’re going to keel-haul you.’

The barnacles on the Carew’s hull

Nearly tore my back to shreds,

My lungs were so close to bursting that

I thought that I was dead.

They hauled me over the side again

The deck was red from my back,

At least I knew I was safe again

From a sudden shark attack.

They rubbed raw salt in my many wounds

Till I thought I was in hell,

While some of the crew had mocked and jeered

The Devil’s own cartel,

They wore tattoos of the skull and bones

It was strange for a Royal crew,

But they themselves had been Impressed

So they hated Hawkins too.

He used to stand on the quarter-deck

Quite close to the starboard rail,

Where he could see any slacking off

While we were under sail,

He’d tie the men to the nearest mast

And would whip, before the crew,

Till every man was inflamed and raw

And would plot what they would do.

It fell to me to devise a plan

That everyone agreed,

We had to get rid of this Devil man

It became our only creed,

So I took a rope when I climbed the mast

That was fixed above his head,

Then swung and booted him over the rail

So we thought that he was dead.

The crew then dashed to the starboard side

And they all looked down and cursed,

For Hawkins floated upon the tide,`

It couldn’t be much worse,

He shouted up, ‘This is mutiny!

I’ll flay that man to the bone.’

But all he got were the jeers of the crew

As the Captain sank like a stone.

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Valentine]

This took me back to old films and books that had sailing ships and ornery captains. Written very well, my kind of a tale. Merry Christmas David. Valentine