Waiting for the Day
Hymnal Index | Ship's Company Website
The worst old brig that ever did weigh,
Sailed out of Harwich on a windy day
And we're waiting for the day,
waiting for the day,
waiting for the day,
That we get our pay.
She was built in Roman time,
Held together with bits of twine.
The Skipper's half Dutch and the Mate's a Jew,
The crew are fourteen men too few.
Nothing in the galley, nothing in the hold,
But the skipper's turned in with a bag of gold.
Off Orford Ness she sprang a leak,
Hear her poor old timbers creak.
We pumped our way round Lowestoft Ness
When the wind backked round to the west-sou'west
Through the Cockle to Cromer Cliff,
Steering like a wagon with her wheel adrift.
Into the Humber and up the town,
Pump you blighters, pump or drown.
Her coal was shot by a Keady crew,
Her bottom was rotten and it went right through.