Charles Wingate

My father was the keeper of the Eddystone light

And he slept with a mermaid one fine night

Out of this union there came three

A porpoise and a porgy and the other was me!

Yo ho ho, the wind blows free,

Oh for the life on the rolling sea!

One night, as I was a-trimming the glim

Singing a verse from the evening hymn

I head a voice cry out an "Ahoy!"

And there was my mother, sitting on a buoy.

Yo ho ho, the wind blows free,

Oh for the life on the rolling sea!

"Oh, what has become of my children three?"

My mother then inquired of me.

One's on exhibit as a talking fish

The other was served in a chafing dish.

Yo ho ho, the wind blows free,

Oh for the life on the rolling sea!

Then the phosphorus flashed in her seaweed hair.

I looked again, and my mother wasn't there

But her voice came angrily out of the night

"To Hell with the keeper of the Eddystone Light!"

Yo ho ho, the wind blows free,

Oh for the life on the rolling sea!