I wonder if you're referring to "Starbuck's Complaint," which The Boarding Party recorded on their 2nd Folk-Legacy album, "Fair Winds and a Following Sea." The first line of its chorus is "See hoisted high the flag of love..."

The words--two stanzas of poetry and one shorter verse--were found inscribed in scrimshaw on a whale's tooth at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts. Jonathan Eberhart and Bob Hitchcock set them to two old tunes, using the shorter of the poems as a chorus. There's a lot more detail in the album notes. "Fair Winds" is available on cassette from Folk-Legacy (FSI-109).

I'm going to try to transcribe the words here, hoping to recall the instructions posted a couple of weeks ago about getting the line breaks right. I also hope this is the song you're thinking of! --Nancy

STARBUCK'S COMPLAINT

While on the sea, my days are spent
In anxious care, oft discontent.
No social circles here are found;
Few friends to virtue here abound.
I think of home, sweet home, denied,
With her I love near by my side.

See hoisted high the flag of love,
By heavenly breezes waved.
Here, sailors, stop, and orders hear.
Obey and you'll be saved.

When will kind fortune set me free,
That I can quit the boistrous sea?
I love my friends, I love the shore,
I long to leave the ocean's roar.
Then home, sweet home, shall be my pride,
With her I love near by my side.

(Chorus)