Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
The mate was fixed by the bosun's pike
The bosun brained with a marlinspike
And Cookey's throat was marked belike
It had been gripped by fingers ten
And there they lay, all good dead men
Like break o'day in a boozing ken
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Fifteen men of the whole ship's list
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Dead and be damned and the rest gone whist
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
The skipper lay with his nob in gore
Where the scullion's axe his cheek had shore
The scullion he was stabbed times four
And there they lay, and the soggy skies
Dripped down in up-staring eyes
In murk sunset and foul sunrise
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Fifteen men of them stiff and stark
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Ten of the crew had the murder mark
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
'Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
Or a yawing hole in a battered head
And the scuppers' glut with rotting red
And there they lay, aye, damn their eyes
Looking up at paradise
All souls bound just contrawise
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Fifteen men of 'em good and true
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Every man jack could have sailed with Old Pew
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
There was chest on chest of Spanish gold
With a ton of plate in the middle hold
And the cabin's riot of stuff untold
And there they lay that took the plum
With sightless glare and their lips struck dumb
While we shared all by rule of thumb
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
More was seen through a sternlight screen
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Chartings undoubt where a woman had been
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
'Twas a flimsy shift on a bunker cot
With a dirk slit sheer through the bosom spot
And the lace stiff dry in a purplish blot
Oh, was she wench or some shuddering maid
That dared the knife and took the blade
By God, she had stuff for a plucky jade
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
We wrapped them all in a mains'l tight
With twice ten turns of a hawser's bight
And we heaved them over and out of sight
With a Yo-Heave-Ho! and a fare ye well
And a sudden plunge in the sullen swell
Ten fathoms deep on the road to hell
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum