by Edmund
Based on "Barrett's Privateers" by Stan Rogers. Here is an MP3 clip of the original as performed by 3 Pints Gone, from the Cantaria site.
Oh the year was sixteen sixty eight
I wish I were in San Juan now!
A letter of marque came from the King
To the scummiest vessel I've ever seen
God Damn them all! I was told
We'd cruise the seas for Montaigne gold
We'd fire no guns, shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man on a Freiburg pier
The last of Constanza's privateers.
Oh Constanza Orduño cried the town,
I wish I were in San Juan now!
For twenty brave men, all tried and true
Would make for her the Maris Stella's crew,
God Damn them all! I was told
We'd cruise the seas for Montaigne gold
We'd fire no guns, shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man on a Freiburg pier
The last of Constanza's privateers.
The Maris Stella was a sickening sight.
She'd a list to port and her sails in rags,
And a cook in the scuppers with staggers and jags.
On the King's birthday we put to sea.
We were ninety-one days to Marina Linda bay,
Pumping like madmen all the way.
On the ninety-sixth day we sailed again.
When a bloody great Montaigne hove in sight
With our cracked twelve-pounders we made to fight
The Montaigne lay low down with gold.
She was broad and fat and loose in stays,
But to catch her took the Maris Stella two whole days
Then at length we stood two cables away.
Our cracked twelve-pounders made an awful din,
But with one fat ball the Montaigne stove us in.
The Maris Stella shook and pitched on her side.
Constanza was smashed like a bowl of eggs,
And the maintruck carried off both me legs.
So here I lay in my twenty-third year.
It's been six years since we sailed away,
And I just made Freiburg yesterday.
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Credits: Alternate lyrics © Edmund Metheny, 2002.