999, I sing it "Hoist up the John B. sail" (or "sails," also noun), which is consistent with the following line, "See how the mainsail set." Then he wants the captain on board (possibly sending someone to haul the captain's behind out of some bar) so they can weigh anchor and go home.

I envision this as a song in which the singer (or protagonist) feels that this has not exactly been what most people think of as a "Caribbean cruise." Things haven't gone well, the law is breathing down their necks, he has one helluva hangover, and he just wants to get back to home port.

That's my take on it. Others' mileage may vary. . . .

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Regarding Obama's naïvété:   What I said was he seems to be naïve in that he was apparently assumed that the Republicans were on the same page he was regarding wanting to find solutions through compromise. By then (and certainly by now!), I thought they had made it abundantly clear that they had dug their heels in and had absolutely no intention of budging an inch. Their main goal was to see to it that Obama failed in whatever he was attempting to do, and to hell with the rest of the country.

Obama should have seen that, forgot about any possibility of compromise, and gone directly to the American public—in the same way that FDR did with his regular "Fireside Chats," telling the country what he was trying to do, why it should be done, and what—and who—was preventing it from happening.

No reason for "disgusted amazement." Unless, of course, one is predisposed to be amazingly disgusting, which is a whole other matter.

Don Firth