Fifteen men on the Dead Man´s chest

Drink and the Devil had done for the rest

The mate was fixed with the bo´sun´s pike
And the bo´sun brained with a marlin-spike,
Cookie´s throat was marked belike
It had been gripped by fingers ten,
And there they lay, all good dead men,
Like break o´ day in a boozin´ den
Yo-Ho-Ho and a bottle of rum!

Fifteen men of the whole ship´s list

Dead and bedamned and the rest gone whist

The skipper lay with his nob in gore
Where the scullion´s axe his cheek had shore,
And the scullion he´d been stabbed times four
And there they lay, and the soggy skies
Dripped all day long up staring eyes
By murk sunset and by foul sunrise
Yo-Ho-Ho and a bottle of rum!

Fifteen men of ´em stiff and stark

Ten of the crew bore the murder mark

´Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead,
Or a yawning hole in a battered head,
And the scuppers a-glut with a rotting red
And there they lay, aye, damn my eyes,
Their lookouts clapped on Paradise,
And their souls going just a-contrariwise
Yo-Ho-Ho and a bottle of rum!

Fifteen men of ´em good and true

Every man-jack could ´a sailed with Old Pew

There was chest on chest full of Spanish gold,
With a ton of plate in the middle hold,
The cabins a riot of loot untold
And there they lay that took the plum,
With sightless glare and lips struck dumb,
While we shared all by the rule of thumb
Yo-Ho-Ho and a bottle of rum!

More was seen through a stern light screen

Charting, no doubt, where a woman had been

A flimsy shift on a bunkered cot
With a thin dirk slot through the bosom spot
And the lace stiff dry with a purplish blot
Oh, was she a wench, some shuddering maid
That dared the knife and took the blade
By God, she was tough for a plucky jade
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 rum!

Wrapped them all in the mainsail tight,
Twice ten turns of a hawser´s bight
And we heaved them over and out of sight
With a yo-heave-ho and a fare-ye-well,
A sudden plunge in a sullen swell
Ten fathoms deep on the road to hell
Yo-Ho-Ho and a bottle of rum!