Traveling down that seabound road
Listening to my shipmates whine,
"Goodbye to Alice, to Mary, to Jane,
We're leavin' you behind."
Well, I've been a bosun half of my life,
Leaving tracks fresh on the beds
Got a back like a rubber band stretched in the wind
Left by the girls I didn't wed,
Left by the girls I didn't wed.

Somebody said, "That's a strange tattoo
You have on both of your arms."
I said, "That the names of the girls I have known,
And all of them did me harms,
And all of them did me harms."

I stood for 'most anything, crossin' the line,
Workin' on the deep blue sea,
I stood for keelhaulin', flogging and worse
But there's no one who can stand me,
There's no one who can stand me.
I got no dick and I got no balls,
Just got a worried soul,
And a bunch of names down both of my arms,
Listing those who did it to me,
Listing those who did it to me.