Stolen from a thread by Barry Finn:


LITTLE BOY BILLEE (as sung by Bob Roberts)
[Each line is sung twice.]

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
There were 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 toughish
So let's eat Little Boy Billee."

"O Little Boy Billee, we're going to kill and eat you
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 topgallant
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.


Bob Roberts (the singing Bargeman) sings this on "Sea Songs & Shanties" on Saydisc (CD-SDL 405) produced by Peter Kennedy. Peter says that the words are probably a translated & adapted by the poet William Thackeray from the French folksong "Le Petit Navire" (The Little Corvette). Bob learned the tune from Henry Trefusis, Falmouth in Cornwall. The Little Corvette can also be found in Peter Kennedy's "Folksongs Of Britain & Ireland", though the text & story is not as near complete as in this English version. Some of the other singers on the same CD are Harry Cox of Norfolk, Bob & Ron Copper, Sarah Makem, Tom Brown, Clifford Jenkins & Bill Barber of Cornwall.