ribbean Sea known as "The Dead Man's
Chest." The cay was so named from its fancied resemblance to the
old sailors' sea chest which held his scanty belongings. The song
or chantey was familiar to deep-sea sailors many years ago. The
song is copied from a very old scrapbook, in which the author's
name was not given. The verses[12] are as follows:

Fifteen men on the Dead Man's Chest,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest.
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
The mate was fixed by the bo'sun's pike
An the bo'sun brained with a marlin spike.
And the cookie's throat was marked belike
It had been clutched by fingers ten,
And there they lay, all good dead men,
Like break o' day in a boozin' ken--
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!

Fifteen men of a whole ship's list,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Dead and bedamned and their souls gone whist,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
The skipper lay with his nob in gore
Where the scullion's axe his cheek had shore,
And the scullion he was stabbed times four;
And there they lay, and the soggy skies
Dripped ceaselessly in upstaring eyes,
By murk sunset and by foul sunrise--
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!

Fifteen men of 'em stiff and stark,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Ten of the crew bore the murder mark,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
'Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead,
Or a gaping hole in a battered head,
And the scuppers' glut of a rotting red;
And there they lay, ay, damn my eyes,
Their lookouts clapped on Paradise,
Their souls gone just the contrawise--
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!

Fifteen men of 'em good and true,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Every man Jack could a' sailed with Old Pew,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
There was chest on chest of Spanish gold
And a ton of plate in the middle hold,
And the cabin's riot of loot untold--
And there they lay that had took the plum,
With sightless eyes and with lips struck dumb,
And we shared all by rule o' thumb--
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!

More was seen through the stern light's screen,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Chartings undoubt where a woman had been,