Key: C
Introduction:
Am
We are two mariners
Am
Our ship's sole survivors
Am E
In this belly of a whale
E
It's ribs are ceiling beams
E
It's guts are carpeting
E Am
I guess we have some time to kill
Am
You may not remember me
Am
I was a child of three
Am E
And you, a lad of eighteen
E
But, I remember you
E
And I will relate to you
E Am
How our histories interweave
F
At the time you were
Am
A rake and a roustabout
F
Spending all your money
E
On the whores and hounds
F E
(oh, oh)
Am
You had a charming air
Am
All cheap and debonair
Am E
My widowed mother found so sweet
E
And so she took you in
E
Her sheets still warm with him
E Am
Now filled with filth and foul disease
F
As time wore on you proved
Am
A debt-ridden drunken mess
F
Leaving my mother
E
A poor consumptive wretch
F E
(oh, oh)
Am
And then you disappeared
Am
Your gambling arrears
Am E
The only thing you left behind
E
And then the magistrate
E
Reclaimed our small estate
E Am
And my poor mother lost her mind
F
Then, one day in spring
Am
My dear sweet mother died
F
But, before she did
E
I took her hand as she, dying, cried
F E
(oh, oh)
Am
"Find him, bind him
Tie him to a pole and break
F
His fingers to splinters
Drag him to a hole until he
Am
Wakes up naked
Clawing at the ceiling
E F E)
Of his grave"
Am
It took me fifteen years
Am
To swallow all my tears
Am E
Among the urchins in the street
E
Until a priory
E
Took pity and hired me
E Am
To keep their vestry nice and neat
F
But, never once in the employ
Am
these holy men
F
Did I ever, once turn my mind
E
From the thought of revenge
F E
(oh, oh)
Am
One night I overheard
Am
The prior exchanging words
Am E
With a penitent whaler from the sea
E
The captain of his ship
E
Who matched you toe to tip
E Am
Was known for wanton cruelty
F
The following day
I shipped to sea
Am
With a privateer
F
And in the whistle
Of the wind
E
I could almost hear
F E
(oh, oh)
Am
"Find him, bind him
Tie him to a pole and break
F
His fingers to splinters
Drag him to a hole until he
Am
Wakes up naked
Clawing at the ceiling
E F E)
Of his grave
C G
There is one thing I must say to you
C G
As you sail across the sea
Am Em
Always, your mother will watch over you
F E
As you avenge this wicked deed"
Am
And then, that fateful night
Am
We had you in our sight
Am E
After twenty months at sea
E
Your starboard flank abeam
E
I was getting my muskets clean
Am
When came this rumbling from beneath
F
The ocean shook
The sky went black
Am
And the captain quailed
F
And before us grew
The angry jaws
E
Of a giant whale
F7 E7
(oh.. oOoH)
Am
Don't know how I survived
Am
The crew all was chewed alive
Am E
I must have slipped between his teeth
E
But, oh, what providence
E
What divine intelligence
E
That you should survive
Am
As well as me
F
It gives my eye great joy
Am
To see your eyes fill with fear
F
To lean in close
And I will whisper
E
The last words you'll hear
F E
(oh, oh)