From Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads, Harding B 28(83):


ROCKS OF SCILLY
Printed for W. Armstrong.

1. Come all you seamen stout and bold that plough the raging main;
Come listen to my tragedy whilst I relate the same.
I parted from my Polly dear, the girl I did adore,
And commanded I was to the ocean wide where lofty billows roar.

2. First to the West Indies we were bound, our gallant ship to steer,
And all the time that I sail'd on, I thought of Polly dear.
Sometimes aloft, sometimes on deck, sometimes I was below.
The thoughts of Polly ran in my mind, love did torment me so.

3. "Up aloft, up aloft," our captain cry'd, "and the very first that does spy land,
Well rewarded he shall be with fifty pounds in hand;
Up aloft, up aloft," the captain cry'd, "to the mainmast up so high."
We look'd all round on every side, neither light nor land could spy.

4. Being on the foremost of the ship, a light by chance to spy,
Cheer on, cheer on before the wind. Some harbor we are nigh.
Cheer on, cheer on before the wind, hoping all danger past;
But we poor souls that very night on the rocks of Scilly were cast.

5. The very first crack our ship did give, alone our captain cry'd:
"The Lord have mercy on our souls! We in the deep must lie."
But out of six hundred bold seamen, but four of us came on shore.
Our gallant ship in pieces split and was never seen any more.

6. When this sad news to Plymouth came, our gallant ship was lost,
Caus'd many a gallant seaman bold to lament for our cruel cause.
Poor Poll was left for to lament the loss of her sweetheart:
"'Twas the ranging seas and stormy wind caus'd my love and I to part."