Flowers of Bermuda

He was Captain of the Nightingale
 Twenty-one days from Clyde in coal
 He could smell the flowers of Bermuda in the gale
 When he died on the North Rock Shoal
 Just five short hours from Bermuda, in a fine October gale
 There came a cry "Oh, there be breakers dead ahead!"
 From the collier Nightingale
 No sooner had the Captain brought
 her round, came a rending crash below
 Hard on her beam ends, groaning, went the Nightingale
 And overside her mainmast goes.
 "Oh, Captain,
 are we all for drowning?" came the cry from all the crew.
 "The boats be smashed! How then are we all to be saved?
 They are stove in through and through!"
 "Oh, are ye brave and hardy
 collier-men or are ye blind and cannot see?
 The Captain's gig still lies before ye whole and sound,
 It shall carry all o' we."
 He was Captain of the Nightingale
 Twenty-one days from Clyde in coal
 He could smell the flowers of Bermuda in the gale
 When he died on the North Rock Shoal
 But when the crew was all assembled and the gig prepared for sea,
 Twas seen there were but eighteen places to be manned
 And nineteen mortal souls were we.
 But cried the Captain "Now do not
 delay, nor do ye spare a thought for me.
 My duty is to save ye all now, if I can.
 See ye return as quick as can be."
 He was Captain of the Nightingale
 Twenty-one days from Clyde in coal
 He could smell the flowers of Bermuda in the gale
 When he died on the North Rock Shoal
 Oh, there be flowers in Bermuda -- beauty lies on every hand
 And there be laughter, ease and drink for every man,
 But there is no joy for me
 For when we reached the wretched
 Nightingale what an awful sight was plain
 The Captain, drowned, was tangled in the mizzen-chains
 Smiling bravely beneath the sea.
 He was Captain of the Nightingale
 Twenty-one days from Clyde in coal
 He could smell the flowers of Bermuda in the gale
 When he died on the North Rock Shoal