Kate Bush Discography

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The Handsome Cabin Boy

It's of a pretty female as you may understand
Her mind being bent for rambling into
Some foreign land
She dressed herself in sailors clothes
Or so it does appear
And she hired with a captain to serve him
For a year

Her cheeks they were like roses
And her hair all 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 plough
One night among the sailors was a fearful
Flurrying row
They tumbled from their hammocks for
Their sleep it did destroy
And they swore about the groaning of
The handsome cabin boy

Oh doctor dear oh doctor the cabin boy did cry
The time has come I am undone
And I will surely die
The doctor came a-running
And a-smiling 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 star
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

There are two verses to the song which Kate has left out. One is the second verse:

The captain's wife she being on board, she seem-ed in great joy
To see her husband had engaged such a handsome cabin boy
And now and then she'd slip in a kiss, and she would have liked to toy
But it was the captain found out the secret of the handsome cabin boy

The other is the last verse:

Then each man took his tot of rum, and drunk success to trade
And likewise to the cabin boy, who was neither man nor maid
Here's hopin' the wars don't rise again, our sailors to destroy
And here's hoping for a jolly lot more like the handsome cabin boy

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