Andrew Ross Andrew Rose Lyrics

Andrew Ross Andrew Rose lyrics

ANDREW ROSS (ANDREW ROSE)
Come all you seamen and give attention
And
listen for a while to me
While I relate of a dreadful murder
Which
happened on the briny sea
Andrew Ross*, an Orkney Sailor
Whose
sufferings now I will explain
While on a voyage from Barbado
On board
the vessel, Martha Jane
Oh think of what a cruel treatment
Without a
friend to interpose
They whipped and mangled, gagged and strangled
The Orkney sailor, Andrew Ross
The mate and captain daily flogged him
With whips and ropes, I'll tell you true
While on Andrew Ross' bleeding
body
Water mixed with salt they threw
For twenty days thus ill they
used him
Oh think, what sorrow, grief and shame
Was suffered by this
gallant sailor
On board the vessel Martha Jane
The captain trained
his dogs to bite him
While Ross for mercy he did pray
And on the
deck, his flesh in mouthfuls
Torn by the dogs they lay
Then in a
water tank they put him
For twelve long hours they kept him there
While Ross for mercy he was pleading
The captain swore none should go
near
The captain ordered him to swallow
A thing thereof I shall not
name
The sailors all grew sick with horror
On board the vessel,
Martha Jane
When nearly dean they did release him
And on the deck
they did him fling
In the midst of pain and suffering
"Let us be
joyful," Ross did say
The captain swore he'd make him sorry
He
chained him with an iron bar
Was that not a cruel treatment
For an
honest British tar
A timber hitch the captain ordered
All on a rope
to be prepared
And Andrew Ross' bleeding body
Was then suspended in
the air
Justice then did overtake them
Into Liverpool they came
And there found guilty of the murder
Committed on the briny ocean
Oh think of what were the captain's feelings
When both his mates they
were released
To think that he alone should suffer
He could not for a
while believe
"Oh God," he cries, "Is there no mercy
Must my poor wife
and children dear
Be hounded out by public scorn
It nearly drives me
to despair"
Soon after that an hour arrived
Captain Rodgers had to
die
To satisfy offended justice
And hangs on yonder gallows high
I hope his fate will be a warning
To all such tyrants who may suppose
Who would treat an Orkney sailor
As what was done to Andrew Ross
Note: Rose rhymes better. The third verse was sometimes used
   as a
chorus; first line of that verse sometiomes sung as:
   "Wasn't that most
cruel usage?" RG  Tune from Oxford Book
    of Sea Songs, Palmer
recorded on Folk Songs of Britain Vol 6
filename[ ANDRROSS
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ANDRROSS
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