Martin Carthy sings Ramblin' Sailor

Oh, I am a sailor brisk and bold,
Long time I've sailed the ocean.
Oh, I've fought for king and the country too,
For honour and promotion.
So now, my brother shipmates, I bid you all adieu,
No more will I go to sea with you;
But I'll ramble the country through and through
And I'll be a rambling sailor.

Oh, it's off to a village then I went
Where I saw lassies plenty;
Oh, I boldly stepped up to one of them
To court her for her beauty.
Oh, her cheeks, they were like the rubies red;
She'd a feathered bonnet a-covering her head.
Oh, I put the hard word on her but she said she was a maid,
The saucy little trim-rigged doxy.

“Oh, I can't and I won't go along with you,
You saucy rambling sailor.
Oh, my parents, they would never agree
For I'm promised to a tailor.”
But I was hot shot eager to rifle her charms.
“A guinea,” says I, “for a roll in your arms.”
The deal was done and upstairs we went,
Myself and the trim-rigged doxy.

Oh, it was haul on the bowline, let your stays'ls fall,
We was yardarm to yardarm bumpin'.
My shot locker empty, asleep I fell
And then she fell into robbin';
Oh, she robbed all my pockets of everything I had,
She even stole my new boots from underneath the bed,
And she even stole my gold watch from underneath my head,
The saucy little trim-rigged doxy.

And it's when I awoke in the morning bright,
Oh, I started to roar like thunder.
My gold watch and my money too
She bore away for plunder.
But it wasn't for my watch nor my money too,
For them I don't value but I tell you true,
I think her little fire-bucket burned my bobstay through,
That saucy little trim-rigged doxy.

Tim Radford