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Little Boy Billee
Bob Roberts
There were three men of Bristol City,
They stole a ship and went to
sea.
There was Gorging Jack and Guzzling Jimmy,
And also Little Boy
Billee.
They stole a tin of captain's biscuits,
And one large bottle of
whiskey.
But when they reached the broad Atlantic,
They had nothing left but one
split pea.
Said Gorging Jack to Guzzling Jimmy,
"We've nothing to eat so I'm going to
eat thee."
Said Guzzling Jimmy, "I'm old and toughest,
So let's eat Little Boy
Billee."
"O Little Boy Billee we're going to kill and eat yur,
So undo the top button of your little chemie."
"O may I say my catechism,
That my dear mother taught to me?"
He climbed up to the main top-gallan',
And there he fell upon his
knee.
But when he reached the Eleventh Commandment,
He cried, "Yo Ho for land I see."
"I see Jerusalem and Madagascar,
And North and South Amerikee."
"I see the British fleet at anchor,
And Admiral Nelson, K.C.B."
They hung Gorging Jack and Guzzling Jimmy,
But they made an admiral of
Little Boy Billee.
I think the words were probably translated and adapted by the poet William
Thackeray from a French folksong, possibly from Le Petit Navire (The Little Corvette), "C'etait un pepetit navire—qui ja-jamais
navigue—ah oui— ah oui". Bob and I both learned the tune from Henry
Trefusis of Trefusis, Falmouth in Cornwall. |