“When I’m discharged at Liverpool ‘n’ draws my bit o’ pay,
I won’t come to sea no more;
I’ll court a pretty little lass ‘n’ have a weddin’ day,‘N’ settle somewhere down shore;
I’ll never fare to sea again a-temptin’ Davy Jones,
A-hearkening to the cruel sharks a-hungerin’ for my bones;
I’ll run a blushin’ dairy-farm or go a-crackin’ stones,
Or buy ‘n’ keep a little liquor-store”
So he said.
They towed her in to Liverpool, we made the hooker fast,
And the copper-bound official paid the crew,
And Billy drew his money, but the money didn’t last,
For he painted the alongshore blue,
It was rum for Poll, and rum for Nan, and gin for Jolly Jack;
He shipped a week later in the clothes upon his back;
He had to pinch a little straw, he had to beg a
To sleep on, when his watch was through,
So he did.
From Salt-Water Poems & Ballads, by John Masefield, published by The
Millan Co.,
NY, 1921, p. 25; first published in
ER
MS, © 1902.
This is the classic sailor story of swearing never to go to sea again, only to go on a binge in sailortown upon being discharged from one's ship."Painted the alongshore blue" means spending his money freely in Sailortown.
The header graphic, "Whorehouse District in a French Sea Port," is drawn by shantyman and sea songs editor Stan Hugill, from
WN, edited by Stan Hugill, published by Routledge & Kegan Paul,
London,
UK, © 1967, p. 151.
Charley Noble
