Cro'jack Will

[Daniel]

I just wrote this sea shanty, to be sung by the crew of the Cynosure in my short novel The Treasure of Ashur MacBain, although I expect no more than a stanza or two will actually appear in the finished story.

I conceived of it as a halyard shanty, but I'm not sure the rhythm is right for that. The one halyard shanty I know, Blow the Man Down, spaces the effort out more evenly between every line. This one sounds more like What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor? or Santy Ano, capstan shanties where the sailors push several times on the chorus.

It uses the tune of

, with a longer pause between stanzas for the chorus.

CRO'JACK WILL

Oh, Cro'jack Will had squinty eyes

And a broken nose stuck hard between

An hundred stone o' fearsome size

But the sorriest sailor I e'er ha' seen.

Lads, heave!

Lads, heave!

The purser staked him for three pound

So his lass and fry might room and eat

He spent it all drinking whiskey down

And his kin slept nights in Beaver Street.

Lads, heave!

Lads, heave!

Cro'jack jump'd his ship in Bristol Town

And married him a maiden true

Eftsoons he blooded her wedding gown

She found him gone, and dowry too.

Lads, heave!

Lads, heave!

He pinched a purse, and a merry race

The watchmen chased him aft and fore.

As he sought himself a hiding place

His eye lit on a man-o'-war.

Lads, heave!

Lads, heave!

Cro'jack made his mark and shipped aboard

And swore he was a fighter bold

But when the French lay board and board

He hid himself deep in the hold.

Lads, heave!

Lads, heave!

When they dragged him up and it was heard

That he left his mates to suffer death

The Admirals sent down the word

That the foreyard brace should choke his breath.

Lads, heave!

Lads, heave!

Cro'jack laid aloft, hauled by his neck

And a loom gale swung him to and fro.

He cried to be let down on deck

But instead to Hell he laid below.

[capn'rob]

If it is to be a Chantey you might consider the "Heave Lads" betwixt two line verse. It would be for an awful long haul were it not.