The Handsome Cabin Boy

[Verse 1]
I'll tell you of a young girl and you will understand
Her mind was bent on rolling onto a foreign land
She dressed herself in sailor's clothes, or so it did appear
And hired with our captain to serve him for a year

[Verse 2]
The captain’s wife she being on board, she seemed in great joy
To see her husband had engaged such a handsome cabin boy
And now and then, she'd slip a kiss, said she would have liked to toy
But the captain found out the secret of the handsome cabin boy

[Verse 3]
Her cheeks were red and rosy and hеr hair hung in its curl
The sailors often laughed and said hе looked just like a girl
But being the captain's favorite, the others didn't annoy
And the waist did swell on pretty Nell, the pretty cabin boy

[Verse 4]
T'was in the bay of Biscay our gallant ship did plough
One night among the sailors was a fearsome scurrying row
They tumbled from their hammocks for their sleep it did destroy
And swore about the groaning of the handsome cabin boy

[Verse 5]
"Oh doctor, dear doctor," the cabin boy did cry
"My time has come, I am undone and I will surely die"
The doctor come a-runnin' and he's smilin' at the fun
To think a sailor lad should bear a daughter or a son

[Verse 6]
They sailors, when they heard the news, they all did stand and stare
The child belonged to none of them they solemnly did swear
The captain's wife, she looked at him, and she said, "I wish you joy
For it's either you or I's betrayed the handsome cabin boy"

[Verse 7]
And then each man took his tote of rum and he drunk success to trade
And likewise to the cabin boy who was neither man nor maid
Here's hopin' the wars don't rise again, us sailors to destroy
And here's hoping for a jolly lot more like the handsome cabin boy