Heart Of Oak
Traditional:
written in the 1700s
courtesy of www.SailorSongs.com
Come cheer up, my lads 'tis to glory we steer
To add something more to this wonderful year
To honour we call you not press you like slaves
For who are so free as the sons of the waves
CHORUS
Heart of oak are our ships heart of oak are our men
We always are ready steady boys, steady
We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again
We ne'er see our foes but we wish them to stay
They never see us but they wish us away
If they run, why we follow and run them ashore
For if they won't fight us we cannot do more
CHORUS
They swear they'll invade us these terrible foes
They frighten our women our children and beaus
But should their flat bottoms in darkness get over
Still Britons they'll find to receive them on shore
CHORUS
We'll still make them fear and we'll still make them flee
And drub 'em on shore as we've drubbed 'em at sea
Then cheer up my lads with one heart let us sing
Our soldiers our sailors our statesmen and Queen
CHORUS
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.
