I tell ye 'bout me father he was a cautious man An' in es' small saloon there was a man called Scurvy Dan His speech was solely curses and his songs they chilled me bones He sang bout haunted galleys he sang bout Davey Jones An' late at night the song turned into a quite seditious moan
Yo-ho! Hi ho! All rise against the gov'nor!
But he was found by stately men and sure they had him hang With me stayed tales of sea and the words he often sang But this song is 'bout me father who was a cautious man Who got in loads of trouble for keeping Scurvy Dan Who all the way to hangman's gate before me as I ran, cried Ho!
I tell ye 'bout me father he was a cautious man E' said just do yer labour as tidy as ye can But on the day the royal crown took away his land Not he nor any cautious man took an honest stand But I a lad of 14 years I shouted like man - Yo Ho!
An' I was thrown in jail of course me age had saved me neck But I escaped to open sea to swab a schooners deck An' soon I learned for sure this worlds' no place for cautious men And I - I made a name fer me at the local pirate den And soon all rats that sail the sea they knew of Scurvy Ben
An' I returned to Port Royal with quite a bulky fleet There was one man that I fer sure was very keen to meet In hours we had crushed their ships and stormed up to the fort And fought of cautious men at arms of the lowest sort Then I was injured and enclosed on the dusty court
They hacked away and fired shots and I was surely doomed But then some loud bangs reached me ears and a man above me loomed There stood me sturdy father no more a cautious man The grimmest smile upon his face, a musket in his hand He grabbed me hand, he pat me back, he dragged me to me feet
An' with new strength an' side by side we breached the wooden door Our sabres gleamed, our pistols cracked and soon there on the floor Lay that bilge rat gov'nor in a heap of silk and gore An' out there in the twilight gleam rose a rhythmic roar The whole towns men was in the street voicing our shout of war