As I walked down in the streets of New Bedford
As I walked down in New Bedford one day,
I saw a young bosun wrapped up in white linen
Wrapped up in white linen and cold as the clay.

"I see by your outfit that you are a bosun,
So please listen close and take warning from me,
Don't dally with women where ever you find them,
Play with the cabin boy, he's better...URGGK!"

I didn't know what he meant by that last word,
I only knew that he no longer drew breath
He'd been dead when he started and dead when he finished
An unfortunate, dead bosun'd been talking to me.