The Shaver - Robert Shaw

When I was a little tiny boy

I went to sea in Stormy’s employ

I sailed away across the sea

When I was just a shaver, a shaver

Oh I was weary of the sea

When I was just a shaver

Oh, they whacked me up and they whacked me down

The mate he cracked me on the crown

They whacked me round and round and round

When I was just a shaver, a shaver

Oh I was weary of the sea

When I was just a shaver

When I went aloft by the lubber’s hole

The mate he cried, God Dang your soul

It’s the (?) of (?) is the way you’re (?)

You shaver, a shaver

Oh I was weary of the sea

When I was just a shaver

When we lollopped around the (?) of

Cape Horn

I wished that I had never been born

And I wished I was home both safe and sound

When I was just a shaver, a shaver

Oh I was weary of the sea

When I was just a shaver

A shaver

When I was just a shaver

Lubber’s Hole — a hole through the platform

surrounding the upper part of the ship’s mast,

through which one may climb to go aloft.

Lolloping — to move with a bobbing motion

Humorous in a very dry and bitter way, this shanty is actually quite gruesome

in relaying the plight of an abused cabin boy who suffers under cruel officers.

One of the few shanties in which the obscenity took a homosexual form.