I'm actually learning this one for singing, "The Chantey of the Cook," and as frequently happens I've made some further changes to the original poem:

By Harry Kemp, tramp poet and sometime sailor, ©1920.
Chanteys & Ballads by Harry Kemp, 1920, pp. 34-36
Adapted by Charles Ipcar 2004
Tune: "Huckleberry Hunting"

THE CHANTEY OF THE COOK-2

The Devil take the cook, that greasy-bearded feller,
Way, hey, haul 'im away!
Who feeds us odds and ends and biscuits whiskered yeller,
And the home port's a thousand miles away.

The hardtack it's moldy and the spuds they all are rotten,
Way, hey, haul 'im away!
And the salt horse we get is forty years forgotten,
And the home port's a thousand miles away.

Now each in our heart has marked the cook for slaughter,
Way, hey, haul 'im away!
For the coffee's only chickory, soaked in luke-warm water,
And the home port's a thousand miles away.

So lay on your fancy duds and join our delegation,
Way, hey, haul 'im away!
We're gonna ask the Captain for a decent daily ration,
And the home port's a thousand miles away.

But, sure, it ain't the cook's fault we eat one day in seven,
Way, hey, haul 'im away!
It's the owners of this hooker, may they never get to Heaven,
And the home port's a thousand miles away.

It's the owners of this hooker that bought us meat that's yeller,
Way, hey, haul 'im away!
The cook, after all, he's a mighty decent feller,
And the home port's a thousand miles away.

Oh, great God in Heaven, when their souls and bodies sever,
Way, hey, haul 'im away!
May them owners fry in Hell, gnawing old salt-horse forever,
And the home port's a thousand miles away.

If you're interested in other poems by Harry Kemp, and nautical poems by two other old sailor-poets Bill Adams and Burt Franklin Jenness then search for my thread titled "Old Sailor-Poets."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble