Lyrics

My name is William Hollander As you may understand I was born in the County of Waterford In Erin's lovely land When I was young and in me prime And health did on me smile My parents raised me tenderly I being their only child My father bound me to a trade In Waterford's fair town He bound me to a cooper By the name of William Brown I served my master faithfully For eighteen months and more Til I shipped aboard The Ocean Queen Belonging to Tramore And when we reached Bеrmuda I fell in with a Captain Moore The skippеr of the Flying Cloud From out of Baltimore He asked me if I'd sail with him On a slaving voyage to go To the burning shores of Africa Where the sugar cane does grow And after weeks of sailing We arrived on Africa's shore Five hundred of those slaves we buys From their native [?], we tore We marched them all along the deck And stowed them down below Scarce eighteen inches to a man Was all they had to go But the plague and fever came on board And took half of them away We carried their bodies up on deck And threw them in the sea Far better for the rest of them If they had died below Than neath the planter's bully boys All along the Cuban shore Oh, we robbed and we plundered many a ship All down the Spanish Main Left many a widow and orphan child In sorrow to remain We fought till captain Moore was killed With eighty of his men An chain-shot brought our mainmast down And we had to surrender then It's next to Newgate we were brought All bound in iron chains For the sinking and plundering of many a ship All along the Spanish Main The judge, he found me guilty I was condemned to die So, young men a warning take by me Lead not such a life as I So, it's fare ye well, to Waterford And the girl that I adore No more I'll kiss her lips again Or squeeze her breasts once more Was whiskey and bad company That made a wretch of me So, come all young men, the warning take And shun the piracy