The Handsome Cabin Boy lyrics

Song information

Artist: Kate Bush
Album: This Woman's Work Anthology 1978 - 1990

Lyrics

It's of a pretty female
As you may understand
Her mind being bent for rambling
Unto some foreign land
She dressed herself in sailor's clothes
Or so it does appear
And she hired with a captain
To serve him for a year

[The captain's wife she being on board
She seemed in great joy
To think the captain had engaged
Such a handsome cabin boy
That now and then she'd slip him a kiss
And she'd have liked to toy
But 'twas the captain found out the secret
Of the handsome cabin boy.]

Her cheeks they were like roses
And her hair rolled in a curl
The sailors often smiled and said
He looked just like a girl
But eating of the captain's biscuit
Her colour did destroy
And the waist did swell of pretty nell
The handsome cabin boy

It was in the bay of biscay
Our gallant ship did plow
One night among the sailors
Was a fearful flurry and row.*
They tumbled from their hammocks
For their sleep it did destroy
And they sworn about the groaning
Of the handsome cabin boy

"Oh doctor, dear, oh doctor,"
The cabin boy did cry
"My time has come, I am undone
And I will surely die."
The doctor come a-runnin'
And a-smilin' at the fun
To think a sailor lad should have
A daughter or a son

The sailors when they saw the joke
They all did stand and stare
The child belonged to none of them
They solemnly did swear
The captain's wife, she says to him
"My dear, I wish you joy
For 'tis either you or me's betrayed
The handsome cabin boy!"

[Now sailors, take your tot of rum
And drink success to trade
And likewise to the cabin boy
That was neither man nor maid
Here's hoping the wars don't rise again
Our sailors to destroy
And here's hoping for a jolly lot more

[from http://lyrics.doheth.co.uk]

"This Woman's Work Anthology 1978 - 1990" album track list