Lyr Add: The Flowing Can (Charles Dibdin)

Subject: Lyr Add: THE FLOWING CAN (Charles Dibdin)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 26 Feb 05 - 04:04 PM

Lyr. Add: THE FLOWING CAN

1.
A sailors life's a life of woe
He works now late now early,
Now up and down, now to and fro,
What then he takes chearly;
Blest with a smiling can of grog,
If duty call, stand, rise, or fall,
To fate's last verge he'll jog
Yhe cadge to weigh,
The sheets belay,
He does it with a wish,
To heave the lead,
Or to cat head.

The pond'rous anchor fish,
For while the grog goes round,
All sense of danger's drown'd
We despise to a man.
We sing a little,
And laugh a little,
And work a little,
Ans swear a little,
And fiddle a little,
And foot it a little,
And swig the flowing can.


2.
If howling winds, and roaring seas,
Give proof of coming danger,
We view the storm, our hearts at ease,
For Jack's to fear a stranger,
Blest with the smiling grog we fly.
Where now below
We headlong go.
Now rise on mountains high,
Spite of the gale.
We hand the sail,
Or take the needful reef,
Or man the deck,
To clear some wreck,
To give the slap relief.
Though perils threat around,
All sense of danger drown'd,
We despise it to a man.
We sing a little, &c.

3.
But yet think not our case is hard
Tho' storms at sea thus treat us
For coming home a sweet reward
With smiles our sweethearts greet us
Now too the friendly grog we quaff (guaff- sic)
Our amrous toast
Her we love most
And gaily sing and laugh
The sails we furl
Then for each girl
The petticoat display
The deck we dear (?clear)
Then three times cheer
As we their charms survey
And then the grog goes round
All sense of danger drown'd
We despise it to a man.
We sing a little, &c.

American Memory. American Song Sheets, Series 1, Volume 3, "The Flowing Can. 179[?]. Publisher, J. Pitts. Sold by C. Sheppard, Doctors Commons. No date, but the type font suggests about 1820. The illustration could be somewhat earlier, but these were often re-used.

Charley Noble, can you add any information?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: THE FLOWING CANN (grog)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 26 Feb 05 - 05:15 PM

Written by Charles Dibdin. Other copies at the Bodleian, including one from Sheppard printed 1790. Sheet music (incomplete?) at Levy: The Flowing Can