brooko-

"nail your colours to the mast"

A similar line is in an old Victorian pirate ballad:


Words by Letitia Elizabeth Landon, music by Horatio D. Hewitt. Boston: Geo. P. Reed, 17 Tremont Row, 1846.
From The Pirates' Own Book © 1924, p. 465
Dedicated to Miss Eliza Gaither of Washington, DC

The Pirate's Song

To the mast nail our flag, it is dark as the grave,
Or the death which it bears while it sweeps o'er the waves;
Let our deck clear for action, our guns be prepar'd;
Be the boarding-axe sharpen'd, the scimetar bar'd.
See the canisters ready, and then bring to me,
For the last of my duties, the powder-room key.
It shall never be lower'd, the black flag we bear;
If the seas be denied us, we'll sweep thro' the air.

If this be the song, I'll be happy to supply the rest of the verses, and a version of it that I've recorded.

Charley Noble