- published: 01 Dec 2010
- views: 488473
Corsairs (French: corsaire) were privateers, authorized to conduct raids on shipping of a nation at war with France, on behalf of the French Crown. Seized vessels and cargo were sold at auction, with the corsair captain entitled to a portion of the proceeds. Although not French Navy personnel, corsairs were considered legitimate combatants in France (and allied nations), provided the commanding officer of the vessel was in possession of a valid Letter of Marque (fr. Lettre de Marque or Lettre de Course), and the officers and crew conducted themselves according to contemporary admiralty law. By acting on behalf of the French Crown, if captured by the enemy, they could claim treatment as prisoners of war, instead of being considered pirates. Because corsairs gained a swashbuckling reputation, the word "corsair" is also used generically as a more romantic or flamboyant way of referring to privateers, or even to pirates. The Barbary pirates of North Africa as well as Ottomans were sometimes called "Turkish corsairs".
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil be done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
The mate was fixed by the bos'n's pike
The bos'n' brained with a marlin spike
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 a 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
And the scullion he was stabbed times four
And there he lay while the soggy skies
Dripped all day-long in up-staring eyes
At Murk sunset and a foul sunrise
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Fifteen men of 'em 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 and ounce of lead
Or a yawning hole in a battered head
and the scuppers glut with a rotting red
And there they lay aye damn my eyes
All lookouts clapped on par - a - dise
All souls bound just con - tra - ri - wise
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 ha' 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 cabins riot with stuff un told
And there they lay that had took the plum
With a sightless glare and their lips struck dumb
While we shared all by the rule of thumb
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Fifteen men of 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!
(FALTA UM VERSO/////////////)
We wrapped 'em all in a mains'(cel)l tight
with Twice ten turns of a hausers bight
And we heaved 'em over and out of sight
with a Yo heave ho and fare you well
And a sullen plunge in a sullen swell
Ten fathoms deep on the road to hell
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!