This poem (or song)was found in the papers of the late U.S. Senator Alan Cranston. A biogrqapher asked me if I could find out anything about its origins. There are 16 verses (and the writing is hard to decipher). It begins:

He was a lonely sailor man
And his face was lined with grief
As he sat alone on a piece of stone
On a rocky windswept reef

Oh sailor man, I said to him
What ----this awful woe
You sit and sigh on this rock and cry
What makes you weepest so?

He was sailin' round the horn, said he,
When he hit a fearful gale
And of all the crew there was only two
what survived to tell the tale

There was only me and my old pal bill
Cast up on a rocky beach
(next line very hard to read)
As far as the eye could see

Poor Bill was ill with tyhe wet and cold
Had a nasty cold in his chest
So he says to me, old pal, -----
Please grant me this last request

My pal, my Bill, I want to make my will
So I looked about for paper, a pen, and ink
But nary a one could I find

Til Bill said here, I've a fine idear
I knows what I can do
So he tatooed a will with a quill upon my back

In a hour or two old Bioll died
And I sat alone and cried
Till late that day about a mile away
A sailing ship I spied

There are some more verses, very hard to read.

A google search on the title came to nothing. If this looks familiar, I'd appreciate any info, and will pass it on, with credit to you, to his biographer. Thanks!

Chanteyranger