Steeleye Span - The Black Freighter lyrics

you gentlemen can gawk while I'm scrubbing the floors and I'm scrubbing the floors while you're gawking and maybe once you tipped me and it made you fell swell in this ratty waterfront, in this ratty hotel but you never know to whom you're talking you never guess to whom you're talking suddenly one night there's a scream in the night and a yell: what the hell is that din and you see me kind of grinning while I'm scrubbing and you'll say: what's she got to grin? and the ship, the black freighter with the skull at the masthead sails into the bay then you gentlemen can say: hey girl, scrub the floors make the beds, get up the stairs, earn you keep here and you pa** out the tips as you look out at the ships but I'm counting up heads as I'm making up beds 'cause tonight none of you will sleep here tonight none of you will sleep here then on that night there's a banging in the night and you yell: what the hell is that row and you see me kind of staring out the window and you'll say: what she got to stare at now? and the ship, the black freighter with fifty long cannons opens fire on the town then you gentlemen can wipe all the grins off your face every building in the town is a flat one the whole stinking place will be down to the ground only this cheap hotel will be standing safe and sound and you say: why do they spare that one? you say: why do they spare that one? then all night through with a noise and to-do you'll wonder who's the person lives up there and you see me stepping out into the morning looking nice with a ribbon in my hair and the ship, the black freighter runs a flag up her masthead and cheer rings the air then just before noon there'll be hundreds of men coming up off that ghostly freighter and they're moving in the shadows where no-one can see and they're chaining up the people and they're bringing them to me asking me: k** them now or later? asking me: k** them now or later? noon on the clock and so still on the dock you could hear a foghorn miles away in the quiet of d**h I'll say: k** 'em now and they'll pile up the bodies and I'll say: hoopla! and the ship, the black freighter sails away out to sea and on it is me