Stormy Weather Boys

Stormy Weather Boys
Bob Roberts

We were laying in the Surrey Dock one day,
The mate knew that it was time to get under way.

Stormy weather boys, stormy weather boys,
When the wind blows our barge will go.

He's homeward bound but he's out of luck,
Cos the skipper's half drunk in 'The Dog andDuck'.

The skipper came aboard with a girl on his arm,
He's going to give his barge in and take a farm.

Then the mate ran for'ard and the cook fell in the dock,
And the skipper got his fingers in the main sheet block.

At last we're off down Lime'ouse Reach,
But the leeboards knocked on Greenwich Beach.

We shoves her off and away we go,
But the skipper's got a barrel of beer below

She fills away and she sails like heck,
But there aint no bargeman up on deck.

There's a crash and a bump and she's ashore,
The mate says Christ we're on the Nore.

Then up jumps a mermaid covered in mud,
We took her down the foc's'le and had a good time.

On the top of the tide the barge did fleet,
When the mate sees a ghost on the tops'l sheet.

So away we go and the ghost did steer,
And the cook drank the dregs of the Old Man's beer.

We lay close-hauled round Orford Ness,
When the wind backed round to the south-sou-west.

We reached our port all safe and sound,
And tied 'er up in Yarmouth Town.

So after all our fears and alarms,
We all ended up in 'The Druid's Arms'.