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Writer's pictureKeith Trayling

Shiver my timbers

Updated: Jun 4



It was early one morning

And the ship was just mooring

Looking battered, beaten and old

It had sailed far and wide

Some crew members had died

To bring back what was deep in the hold


The year seventeen hundred

Ships were being plundered

By pirates and countries at war

So a dangerous quest

That brought some success

Left the crew just wanting some more


Well, after a time

Of women and wine

The ship was refitted and ready

The sails did unfold

The crew, young and old

Together, shouted steady boys steady


The wind filled the sail

Feeling they could not fail

Sea shanties were sung by the crew

Optimism was high

No clouds in the sky

What the future held , nobody knew


The wind was quite strong

So it wasn't that long

More than a month but not more than two

They were in warmer seas

Scrubbing decks on their knees

The sky a welcoming blue


Now the peace didn't last

'cause high in the mast

In the crow's nest stood dead-eyed Big Jim

Left eye had a patch

But he ws ready to catch

A share of some bounty for him


And now JIm was certain

That on the horizon

He'd spotted a merchant ship's sail

Ship Ahoy! was his call

Heard by them all

In no time they were hard on it's tail


"Come on me beauties

We all know out duties,"

Said the captain, with a voice just like thunder

" That ship is too slow

We'll deliver a blow

It's loaded with riches to plunder"


Steady boys steady

With ropes at the ready

Deadly quiet, they had nothing to say

They came alongside

Thinking just of the prize

That will be theirs by the end of the day


This was the morn

With cutlasses drawn

That everyman had always prepared for

So this blood thirsty hoard

Climbed swiftly aboard

It's treasure prepared now to die for


The battle wa short

Their captain was caught

The dead were thrown over the side

The load was transfered

Then they said a word

For the shipmates who that day had died


The pirates were lenient

In truth it was convenient

The ship was left with it's men

A skeleton crew just ought

Get back to it's port

And start the whole process again!


So with a belly full of rum

And a beat of the drum

The pirates sailed off in full voice

Time spent at sea

They were happy to be

This life was a pirates first choice


But this life could not last

As one day by the mast

Their last time together they'd spend

They all would be hung

Altogether they swung

Into history they sailed in the end






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