One night as I lay on my bed,
I lay so fast asleep,
When the thought of my true love come running in my head,
And sailors that sail on the deep.
As I sailed out one day one day
And being not far from land,
There I saw a mermaid sat on a rock,
A comb and a gla** in her hand.
Now the song she sang, she sang so sweet,
No answer at all could I say,
Till our gallant ship she swung round about,
Which made our poor hearts to ache.
Then up stepped the helmsman of our ship,
In his hand a lead and line.
For to sound the seas so wide and so deep,
No hard rock or sand could he find.
Up stepped the captain of our ship,
And a well-speaking man is he.
He says, "I have a wife in fair Plymouth town,
This night and a widow she'll be."
Up stepped the bosun of our ship,
And a well-spoken man was he.
He says, "I have two sons in fair Bristol town,
And orphans I fear they will be."
And then up stepped our cabin boy,
And a fine pretty boy was he.
He says, "Oh, I grieve for my mother dear,
Whom I shall never more see.
Last night last night when the moon shone bright,
My mother she had sons five.
But now she may look in the salt salt sea
And find but one alive."
Call for boats, call for boats, my fair Plymouth boys,
Do you hear how the trumpets sound?
For the want of a long-boat in the ocean we're lost
And most of our merry men drowned.