CAPO on 1st FRET
I done my level best, to whomever’s concerned,
C Em Am C
For children of wailer’s, we all take a turn,
C Em F G
Now we lay in our oars boat, us six men at sea,
Dm G C Am
And travel for home with rations for three,
Dm G C Am
Two ounces fresh water and hardtack a day,
Dm G C Am
But we’ll see Nantucket again,
F G C
Forty days and forty nights, we followed the wind,
In the southern Pacific, many miles from land,
The first mate of Essex, and few crew with me,
Our captain George Pollard is lost at the sea,
And I look to the East and see nothing but blue,
So what can us starving men do?
But sing, sing, we’re on our way home,
C G F G
Across the Pacific, and through the unknown,
C G F G7
With God as our shepherd then no harm shall pass,
C E7 Am
We’ll be in Nantucket at last,
F G C
But oh, how this skin of blistered leather pulls tight on our skulls,
C7 F F7
As rations all dwindle away,
C E7 Am
And oh, how our dreams every night, of our stomachs so full,
C7 F F7
But awake to find water to last two more days,
Dm G C Am
Our spirits all broken, our minds are all crazed,
Dm G C Am
And oh, how I’d kill for just one more good meal,
Dm G C Em Am
But home’s a little farther away,
F G C
So sing, sing, we’re on our way home,
Across the Pacific, and through the unknown,
With God as our shepherd then no harm shall pass,
We’ll be in Nantucket at last,
But oh, when I look at my crewman, I see them looking back at me,
Humanity gone from their eyes,
Once we were men of our god, and brothers at sea,
Those times weren’t so long ago, but how quick they pass,
Was once death a stranger, now approaching us fast,
But we are Nantucket, the proud and the strong,
For Nantucket, we must travel on,
But oh, how these hunger pangs drive all the thoughts in my brain,
And body dries up in the sun,
Oh, cause it’s meat and fresh water that the six of us crave,
So six bits of paper are tossed in the cap,
And six men reach in and each pull out a scrap,
And one man of six, with the unlucky draw,
Is one man to help feed us all.