Fire Down Below (2)

She was just a village maiden with red and rosy cheeks
To me way, hay, hee, high, ho!
Oh, she went to church and Sunday Scool and sang this anthem sweet
Oh there's fiyer down below.

The passon wuz a misery, so scraggy an' so thin,
Set he, 'Look 'ere, you shellbacks, if yer lead a life of sin,'

He took his text from Malachi an' he pulled a weary fayice,
Oh, I took french leave an' I sailed away, but now I've fell from
grace.

This passon had a daughter who wuz sweet as sugar candy,
I said to her,"Us sailors would make lovers neat an' handy."

She set to me,"You sailors is a bunch o' bloomin' liars,
An' ail of yiz is bound ter Hell, ter feed the bloomin' [flamin'] fiyers."

She wuz a very naughty gal was this passon's only daughter,
She went down to a creek for to wash her locks in water.

The fiyer down below, me lads, is very hot an' jolly,
But the fiyer there's not 'arf so 'ot as my sweet clipper Polly.

There's fiyer in the cabin, boys, an' in the galley too,
But there's no fiyer in the fo'c'sle an' it's cold is the crew.

There's fiyer all around us, boys--it's playin' hide an' seek,
It's tryin' to find a bunk, m' lads, where it can git some sleep.

There's fiyer in the galley an' it's runnin' down below,
There's fiyer in the bosun's pipe-it's time for us to go

If the rotten boats won't hold us when it's time for us to go,
We'll complain to Havelock Wilson when we gits him down below.

There's fiyer up above me, boys, there's fiyer down below,
There's fiyer in the main-top, boys, it's rouse all hands below.

From Shanties from the Seven Seas, Hugill (a version)
RG
APR99