Found at Neil's Pocket Melodist, or Vocal Repository, No. 22 (London: A. Neil, 1805), page 64.



NELSON AND VICTORY
Written by Mr. E. Craig.--Tune “True Courage."

TOM Splice was a tar in whose bosom was blended
The feelings of virtue, and bravery too,
Who oft under Nelson our land had defended,
And made each proud foe for their mercy to sue.
At Calvi, Aboukir, or Teneriffe, fighting,
Tom car'd not, might he near brave Nelson be found,
For Tom thought no watch-word was half so inviting
As “Nelson for ever, with victory crown'd!”

At last off Trafalgar his glory completing,
Brave Nelson!--ah! drop to his mem'ry a tear--
The Armada combin'd whilst with glory defeating,
Lost his life, to Old England so precious, so dear!
And there o'er his Admiral, tenderly sighing,
Supporting the vet'ran, Tom met his death wound;
Yet still, while his soul from its mansion was flying,
Cry'd "Nelson for ever, with victory crown'd!"

I am but a sailor, but yet I'm true-hearted,
And tho' Tom's sad story I weep to relate,
Yet the salt tear that falls for his spirit departed
Is lost in the flood shed for Nelson's sad fate;
But leave grief's pearly drop to the fair cheek of beauty;
Let direful revenge in our bosoms be found.
Let us hope, that as here he was true to his duty.
Death's conqueror now he with glory is crown'd.

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Lyrics are also in Fairburn's Naval Songster (London: John Fairburn, 1806), page 23, where it is called “Tom Splice.”
and in Great Nelson's Laurels (London: J. Pitts, 1806), page 3, where it is called “Nelson and Victory.”
The last publication can also be found in the Bodleian Ballad Collection, Curzon b.24(98).