Come all ye sailors bold, an' when me tale is told,
I know ye all will sadly pity me.
For I was a bloomin' fool in the port o' Liverpool,
On the voyage when I first paid off from sea.
-
Ooh, Maggie, Maggie May, they have taken you away,
For to slave upon Van Diemens' cruel shore.
Oh you robbed many a whaler an' many a drunken sailor,
But ye'll never cruise down Paradise Street no
more.
I paid off at The Home, after a voyage from Sierra Leone,
And two pounds ten a month had been my pay.
As I jingled in me tin, I was sadly taken in,
By a lady of the name of Maggie May.
- Ooh, Maggie, Maggie May...
When I steered into her, I hadn't got a care,
I was cruisin' up an' down ol' Canning Place.
She was dressed in a gown so fine, like a frigate of the line,
An' I bein' a sailorman, I gave chase
- Ooh, Maggie, Maggie May...
She gave a saucy nod, an' I like a farmer's clod,
Let her take me line abreast in tow.
An' under all plain sail, we ran before the gale,
An' to the Crow's Nest Tavern we did go.
- Ooh, Maggie, Maggie May...
Next mornin' when I woke, I found that I was broke,
I hadn't got a penny to me nyme.
So I had to pop me suit, me John L's an' me boots,
Down in the Park Lane pawn shop, number nine.
- Ooh, Maggie, Maggie May...
She was chained and sent away from Liverpool next day,
The lads they cheered as she sailed down the bay.
An' every sailor lad he only was too glad,
They'd sent the old whore out to Botany Bay.
- Ooh, Maggie, Maggie May... (x2)
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