Eight Bells
from the 1870s
Traditional:
courtesy of www.SailorSongs.com
My husband's a saucy foretop man,
A chum of the cooks, don't you know?
He put his head down the cook's funnel,
And shouted, "come up from below."
Eight bells, Eight bells,
Rouse out there the watch from below;
Eight bells, eight bells,
Rouse out there the watch from below.
My husband once shipped in a whaler,
And sailed to the far Northern Seas;
But being a bold-hearted sailor,
He cared not for ice, sea, nor breeze.
Eight bells, Eight bells,
Rouse out there the watch from below;
Eight bells, eight bells,
Rouse out there the watch from below.
At the end of each watch though his fancy
Was to get to his bunk quickly, oh!
For he wanted to dream of his Nancy,
So called to the watch, "hi below!"
Eight bells, Eight bells,
Rouse out there the watch from below;
Eight bells, eight bells,
Rouse out there the watch from below.
But now he's no longer a sailor
He often wakes up in the night
And thinking he's still on the whaler
Calls out with the greatest delight-
Eight bells, Eight bells,
Rouse out there the watch from below;
Eight bells, eight bells,
Rouse out there the watch from below.
The author of this website has put a lot of time and effort into gathering the greatest collection of sea shanties for the world to enjoy - There are songs that have been to sung to a job of work at sea for many, many years and collecting them has been a great endeavour. - Roger Chartier has made the effort out of his own interest and the requests that he has gotten to do this work from fellow musicians who wanted a good source of sea shanties to draw on and learn from. He has been told that for this effort he is a remarkable man.
