A young sailor stands at cannon's side, before the rolling tide.
His hands are rough from work, his eyes have no glint,
His hair is matted like the mat he sleeps on.
He longs for the sand as a slave longs for his own land,
And his shipmates' jeers are as steady as the rolling tide.
Day after day he heaves and hauls alone to no shanty, not a word from his mouth,
Thoughts of home dig their talons in his head.
All the world is after him, thinks the young sailor,
Nor the land, sea, nor sky think him of worth, the cat o' nine tails his only friend,
And those thoughts come to him, as constant as the rolling tide.
Time to the sailor takes double to go by,
He grows to hate his captain the same as the sea.
He signs his captain's name to the waves in blood, like the scoundrel he is.
His shipmates, by his command, bound the poor bloke,
They fed him to the rolling tide.
And so the sailor, once called landlubber by these men,
Has a crew now ever-loyal, to sail the open seas.
But he does not want to be captain, he longs for the earth beneath his boots,
However the sailor, now captain, complied with his crew,
And became prisoner of the rolling tide.
And though our sailor was captain by name,
He let his crew do as they wished,
So they did plunder and they did kill,
And before he knew it, the sailor is a pirate,
Wanted by bounty-hunters along the rolling tide.
For years this went on,
His hands still rough from work, and his eyes still with no glint,
His hair more matted, with a beard to match.
He no longer longs for land, he needs it like a man needs food,
And the voices in his head crash against his skull like the rolling tide.
His crew is getting in his way, they're incompetent and vain.
So he rounds them all up and brings fury and fire onto them.
They become acquainted with the lash, they become brothers with the keel,
And they see their shipmates drop to their knees,
And fear strikes their hearts like the rolling tide.
Finally, the ship is homeward bound.
The sailor can see his precious land after years at sea.
But before he can order the anchor, his crew signs his name to the waves in blood,
They bind him and feed him to the sea,
And the sailor is swallowed by the rolling tide.
