A PIRATE STORY

Evening Star, Issue 20139, 2 April 1929, Page 12

A PIRATE STORY

NEW VERSION OF CHANTY I have frequently been asked if 1 can throw" any light on the origin of the famous chanty in Stevenson’s ‘ Treasure Island.’ and in the meaning of the 1 recurring phrase. “ Fifteen men on the 1 Dead Man’s Chest.’ The subject may be of interest to readers, writes Commander F. G. Cooper, 8.N.8.. in ‘ The Navy,’ the official organ of the Navy League. “Dead Man’s Chest” was the name of one of the Virgin Islands, given it by the pirates and buccaneers, and it is mentioned by Kingsley in his volume of West Indian travels; Stevenson very I probably obtained the name from a perusal" of that volume. An old shipmate and friend of mine completed the chanty as he thought it should be completed, and set the words to his own music. This friend, now" I dead. was one Arthur Brebncr, : M.U.C.S., L.E.C.P., and. although 1 have not the words or music b.y me. I found very similar words published in ‘ The Book Monthly,’ somewhere in 1915 I think it was, and I give them hero as being of interest to most sailormen Fifteen men on the Dead Man’s Chest— Yo-ho-ho and a bottle ol rum! Drink and the devil had done for the rest— Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! But one man of her crew alive— Yo-ho-ho and a bottlo of rum! What put to sea with seventy-five— Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum 1 Fifteen men of a ■whole ship’s crew— Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum ! Dead and dedamned, and their souls damned, too— Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! The mate was fixed by a boarding pike, And the bosun brained with a marline spike, The cook’s fat throat was marked belike, It lias been clutched by fingers ten : And there they lay, all good dead men, Like break o’ day in a boozing den. Fifteen men of ’em, stiff and stark— Yo-ho-ho and a bottlo of rum 1 Ten of the crew boro the murder mark— Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! ’Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead, Or a gaping hole in a battered head. And blood lay round all dried and red: And there they lay, aye, damn my eyes, Their lookouts fixed on paradise, Their souls gone just contrariwise— Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! Fifteen men of ’em, good and true— Yo-ho-ho and a bottlo of rum 1 Every man Jack could have sailed with old Pew— Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! There was chest on chest of Spanish gold, And a ton of plate in the lower hold, And the cabin full of loot untold: And there they lay what had took this plum, With sightless eyes and lips long dumb, And wo shared all by rule o’ thumb— Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! Fifteen men on the Dead Man’s Chest — Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum ! Drink and the devil had done for the rest— Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rural We wrapped ’em all in a mainsail tight, With twice ten turns of a hawser’s bight, And we heaved ’em over and out of sight, With a yo-heave-ho and a fare ye well, And a sudden plunge in a sullen swell, Ten fathoms down on the road to hell— Yo-ho-ho and a bottlo of rum! The above was my friend’s version of the chanty of the ensanguined ruffians who formed Flint’s crew. They had evidently taken their ship to Dead Man’s Chest*to divide the plunder, had disagreed under the influence pf rum, and butchered, each other as described ! in the song.