Kate Bush The Handsome Cabin Boy Lyrics

The Handsome Cabin Boy Lyrics

'Tis of a pretty female 
As you may understand. 
Her mind being bent for
rambling 
Unto some foreign land, 
She dressed herself in sailor's
clothes, 
Or so it does appear, 
And she hired with a captain 
To
serve him for a year. 

Her cheeks they were like roses 
And her hair
rolled in a curl. 
The sailors often smiled and said 
He looked just like
a girl. 
But eating of the captain's biscuit 
Her colour did destroy,

And the waist did swell of pretty Nell, 
The handsome cabin boy.


'Twas in the bay of Biscay 
Our gallant ship did plow. 
One night
among the sailors 
Was a fearful flurry and row.* 
They tumbled from their
hammocks 
For their sleep it did destroy, 
And they sworn about the
groaning 
Of the handsome cabin boy. 

"Oh doctor, dear, oh
doctor," 
The cabin boy did cry. 
"My time has come, I am
undone, 
And I will surely die." 
The doctor come a-runnin' 
And
a-smilin' at the fun. 
To think a sailor lad should have 
A daughter or a
son. 

The sailors when they saw the joke 
They all did stand and
stare. 
The child belonged to none of them, 
They solemnly did swear.

The captain's wife, she says to him, 
"My dear, I wish you joy,

For 'tis either you or me's betrayed 
The handsome cabin boy!"