No, this song not another version of "Chicken on a Raft" but a sea poem by the esteemed Maine poet Peter Tristam Coffin, of whom I have a vague memory of having attended his 90th birthday party some 40 years ago (copy and repaste into WORD/TIMES/12 to get chords right):

HEN OVERBOARD!

(By Peter Tristam Coffin © Collected Poems Adapted by Charlie Ipcar in 1995 Tune by Charlie Ipcar Key: Dm (Gm/7))


Dm----------------C
"All hands on deck!" came the cry,
-----Dm----------C
From Capt. Cobb as white as chalk;
---Dm-------------C
He spun the wheel in his broad hands;
----Dm----------------C-------Dm
"I've lost me wife's best Plymouth Rock!"


The vast white bellied sails went flat;
A hundred blocks began to whine;
The yards swung round to catch the wind,
As round-eyed sailors hauled each line.

"She was took from her setting-eggs
To sun upon the after-hatch;
The wind caught her, now look alive,
Or God knows what I'm gonna catch!"

Under Java's sky-high peaks,
In the Strait of Sunda's foam,
The prim New England biddy-hen
Squawked for help, and longed for home.

She knew this was a godless place;
She'd seen the wicked sharks at play;
She thought she'd never see her home
Twelve thousand watery miles away.

Then, the Yankee ship swooped down;
The davits shrieked, down came the boat;
They manned their oars and Capt. Cobb
Found Plymouth Rock was still afloat.

He tucked her in his best frock coat;
He soothed her woes as best he could;
Home he brought her to her nest,
New England, God, and Motherhood.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble