| Captain Ward |
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| The Streaker |
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Captain Ward traditional, arranged by the Tannahill Weavers
The Streaker by D. Johnstone
Scotland, despite being surrounded on
three sides by water, has been remarkably devoid of pirates. Indeed,
the only countries in the western world to have had less are Austria and
Switzerland. However, to our tale. The bold captain has a
ferocious battle with the king's flagship, seventeen hours long according
to this song, after which he emerges victorious.
Local legend has it that after this glorious victory Captain Ward decided
to retire to a remote island in the South Seas where he was eventually
killed by a tribe of marauding cannibals. Being Scottish, there
wasn't much meat on him, which almost saved him from that horrible
fate. Our livers, unfortunately, are also legendary. |
LYRICS:
Come all ye jolly mariners
That love to tak' a dram
I'll tell ye o' a robber
That o'er the seas did come
He wrote a letter to his king
On the eleventh of July
To see if he wad accept o' him
For his jovial company
"Oh na, oh na," says the king
"Oh that can never be,
They tell me that ye are a robber
A robber on the sea"
He has built a bonnie ship
An' sent her to the sea
Wi' fower and twenty mariners
To man his bonnie ship wi'
They sailed up an' they sailed doon
Sae stately, blythe, an' free
Till they spied the kings high Reindeer
Like a leviathan on the sea
"Why lie here, ye tinker
Ye silly coordly thief?
Why like here, ye tinker
An' hold oor king in grief?"
They fought from one in the morning
Till it was six at night
Until the king's high Reindeer
Was forced to tak' her flight
Gae hame, gae hame, ye tinkers
Tell ye your king fae me
Though he reign king upon good dry land
I will reign king upon sea
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