MAGGIE MAY

Come all ye sailors bold, an' when me tale is told
I know ye all will sadly pity me
For I was a goddam fool in the port o' Liverpool
On the voyage when I first paid off from sea

I paid off at the home, after a voyage from Sierra Leone
Two pounds ten a month had been me pay
As I jingled in me tin, I was sadly taken in
Bya lady of the name of Maggie May

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Ooh, Maggie Maggie May they have taken you away
For to slave upon Van Diemen's cruel shore
Oh you robbed many a whaler an'
many a drunken sailor
But you'll never cruise down Paradise Street no more

When I ran into her I hadn't got a care
I was cruisin' up an' down ol' Canning Place
She was dressed in a gown so fine, like a frigate of the line
An' I being a sailorman gave chase

She gave a saucy nod, an' I like a farmer's clod
Let her take me line abreast in tow
And under all plain sail, we ran before the gale
And to the Crow's Nest tavern we did go

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When I got full of beer, to her lodgings we did steer
She charged me filteen shillings for the fight
I was so ruddy drunk when I landed in her bunk
I never knew what happened in the night

Next mornin' when I woke, I found that I was broke
I hadn't got a penny to me name
So I had to pop me suit, me Long Johns an' me boots
Down in the pawn shop, number one, Park Lane

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Oh, you robbin' Maggie May, you robbed me of me pay
When I slept with you last night ashore
Guilty the Jury found her,
for the robbin' of a homeward-bounder
An' she'll never cruise down Park Lane any more

She was chained and sent away from Liverpool next day
The lads they cheered as she rolled down the Bay
And every sailor lad he only was too glad
They'd sent the old whore out to Botany Bay

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