The Good Luck Ship
1. Did you ever hear tell of the good luck ship?
Did you ever hear tell of her commander's name?
She's the Royal Rainbow out from Bristol Town
And Captain Ramsgate was his name.
2. Now this good luck ship was loaded deep
Three anchors weighed all on the bow
And the wind it being east-nor'east, me boys,
As close to the wind as we could steer.
3. Now we had not been sailing three days or four
When we espied ten men-of-war
When we espied ten men-of-war
And down on us they did hussor.
4. So it's, "Strike, come strike, you English dogs,
Come strike your tops'ls down by speed!"
"Well, if you've a mind for to have them strike,
Come you on board, strike them for me."
5. So he called up his merry men all, saying,
"Get you ready, boys, obey my call,
Get your firelocks ready and fix them well
And throw in plenty of good bombshell."
6. Then he called up his little cabin boy
And sent him up aloft so high
And there to fly King George's flag
And under that we'll fight or die.
7. So from the sunrise into the sun going down,
We fight like any, boys, when we meet,
From the sunrise into the sun going down
We spied not one sail of our fleet.
8. But three we sank and three we burned
The other three, well, they ran away,
And one we brought safe to fair England's shore
To let them know we'd won the day.
9. So now, thank God, we have won the day
We've caused the Frenchies all for to rue
Here is Captain ramsgate and all his crew
Let everyone give them a good huzzah!
- from Peter Bellamy, "Fair England's Shore", from Harry Cox of Norfolk.
RG
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!