From Joanna C. Colcord, Songs of American Sailormen (1938 edition), p. 135. Originally from The Book of Navy Songs.
What said John Paul Jones on the brave Bon Homme Richard; What said that good fighting man, lashed foe to foe? You bid me surrender! I ve not yet begun to fight! And that was the Navy of long, long ago!
What said Captain Lawrence on board the doomed Chesapeake; What said he when, wounded, they bore him down below? "Don't give up the ship!" though the Shannon had beaten him! And that was the Navy of long, long ago!