Here's the song from "Canadian Merchant Service Guild News" Vol. 25, No. 1, April, 2003, page 10. They call it "an interesting and amusing poem out of the Port of Arklow, Ireland by C.C. O'Reilly. (Actually it's a sea-chant, key D)."


CAPTAIN MAC

Oh, well set up and handsome as a sailor man could be
Was Captain John MacPherson of the schooner "Ben Machrie".
A shy and modest bachelor of just two score and ten,
The idol of the ladies and the envy of the men.

CHORUS: Oh, East and West, North and South, Frisco to Perim;
Didn't matter where he went, the gals were after him.
They chased him, pursued him, they would not let him be
Till Captain John MacPherson cursed the day he went to sea.

He dyed his beard a fury red. 'Twas not the slightest good!
To make himself a skeleton, he took some patient food.
He wore a pair of spectacles, looked morose and queer,
But the gals still flocked around him and said he was a dear.

CHORUS

At last he grew so weary that he said unto the mate,
"Unless this adoration stops, I'll go clean off my pate.
Why can't the gals leave me alone?" Said the mate, "I'll save you, sir!
You take a wife, that's my advice, and leave the gals to her".

CHORUS: (as above but last line:)
But they did when Madame Captain John was mistress of the sea.