So hold onto your watch caps! I think I've found an appropriate tune (almost any tune can be made to work!) and I've done some major lyrics revision (copy and paste into Word/Times/12 to line up chords):

Poem by Angus Cameron Robertson (Master Mariner), 1927
Adapted by Charles Ipcar 3/5/10
Tune: after traditional "Johnny Todd"
Key: D (2/C)

The Old Tea-Clipper Days


C-----------------F-------C
I have sailed in old tea-clippers,
----------------------F---C---G
Sailed in ships so taut and trim;
C------------------F-------C
Bowlin' o'er the rolling ocean
--------------------G--------C
With the wind a-baft the beam;
F-------G7-----F------------C
As the rising gale grows stronger
--------------------F------C-----G
Filling out each snow-white sail:
C--------------------------F--------C
"Look sharp, lads, she rolls to leeward,
----------------------G--------C
Now she dips her weather rail."


I can see her decks a-slanting,
Green with slime amidships too;
I can hear old Bill the bos'un
Cursing out our bully crew;
I can see them hairy faces
Laughing in the briny spray,
Hauling on the tops'l halliards,
Howling chanties, wild and gay.

Oh, the rushing of the water,
As we ship a big beam sea,
Lashing spray into our faces,
Filling seaboots to the knee,
With our soul and body lashings
Tied full taut about the waist,
While the bos'un shouts like thunder,
"Damn your eyes! Belay! Make Haste!"

We have stabbed the mouldy hardtack
With our sheath-knives thro' and thro';
Flicking out the crawling weevils
'Fore we mashed them for the stew;
We have felt the pangs of hunger
Thinkin' back on cracker hash --
"Dandy-funk" and "Dog's body,"
"Some brown sugar? Why just a dash."

We have tacked and run before it,
Where the roaring forties dwell --
We have wallow'd in the Doldrums
Where the sun's as hot as Hell!
Or in a dark an' freezing blizzard,
We have weathered old Cape Horn;
And we've passed the "Flying Dutchman"
With her tops'ls rent and torn.


Notes:

"Dandy-funk" is a pudding made of crumbled hardtack, fat, and molasses served to sailors as a special treat.

"Dog's body" is a mixture of dried peas and eggs boiled in a bag (pease pudding) as one of the staple foods served to sailors.

The tune is AABA with the B lines melody reminiscent of "Scarlet Ribbons." Lord knows how these two tunes got together but it seems to work quite well.

No doubt I'll still do some additional tinkering as I actually learn to sing this song. But I think it's a promising start. Hmmm, was that a big beam sea rising to the lee?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble