A hundred days at sea, A wretch away from misery Rummies and rats and tarry jacks my only family The island of salvation is still a scream a way As the lungs of the night blow out the light my heart kneels down to pray
Lord why did you take her She meant so much to me Now I’m a wretched soul on a privateer drowning out at sea I’m killing and I’m drinking my blue heart to black But I swear, oh Lord, I’ll never sin again if you bring her back
Gypsy was a siren, Dripping with desire Her moonless hair and skin so fair as warm as frozen fire She had the loyalty of a cat, behind those pale green eyes And through her cherry lips the devil slipped, a thousand lies A clan of rogues and vagabonds occupied her head That thieving band took her pale white hand and stole her from my bed And like a ghost ship in the night she drifted out once more To land upon the sand of another lover’s shore
Lord why did you take her she meant so much to me Now I’m a wretched soul on a privateer drowning out at sea I’m killing and I’m drinking my blue heart to black But I swear, oh Lord, I’ll never sin again If you bring her back
In my sleeping mind she sings a sad and lonely lullaby When I wake there’s just the ache it will haunt me till I die When those winds of vanity no longer blow her west I pray they’ll guide her home (across the foam) and put my heart to rest Press gang filled this Man-o-War To make the black mouthed cannon roar Now all my trade is ball and blade, and blood forever more And the sting of salt and spray, the ocean’s howl and squall A stumbling wreck, I roam the deck, at the devil’s beck and call.. at the devil’s beck and call
Oh, Lord, why did you take her She meant so much to me Now I’m a wretched soul on a privateer Drowning out at sea I’m killing and I’m drinking my blue heart to black But I swear, oh Lord, I’ll never sin again if you bring her back