Song Description

An old-English style story song in the tradition of sea shanties.

Lyrics

I am a sailing man and how I love the sea
Born upon the water in 1823
I sail on ships for England across the whole world wide
On the ocean I was born, on the ocean I will die

Forty days from Amsterdam on a long, long trip
I was just a young man on my first sailing ship
We hadn't seen a speck o' land for longer than we knew
And every day the sky and sea were the same shade of blue

The Captain soon grew weary of the same old scenery
He acted kinda funny, well at least it seemed to me
His eyes were wide and strange like they were scared of what they'd seen
And more and more it seemed to me that he was gettin' mean

He beat up old McTavish though he hadn't done a wrong
Chained him to a mast and he got sick before too long
We could hear that old man screamin' as we cowered down below
Found him dead next mornin', chained from head to toe

We thought of takin' the ship away from a captain gone insane
But we knew that if we did that we all would surely hang
When the wind came blowin' the Captain ordered me
I picked up old McTavish and I threw 'im in the sea


Thirty days we sailed along, doing even keel
Victims of a ship that had a madman at the wheel
He made us work until we'd fall exhausted on the floor
He'd mention old McTacvish, we'd get up and work some more

The crew was all on deck out on that cold and foggy night
When the Captain whipped a sailor 'cause he didn't look just right
Suddenly an eerie sound called out the Captain's name
And through the fog we heard the sound of rattling of chains

A gray and ghostly figure floated from the deck below
It hollered and it whimpered and it moaned out soft and low
Moved closer to the Captain and he cried "How can it be?
Surely is McTavish comin' back up from the sea!"

The Captain screamed and backed up just as far as he could go
He could hear the waves a'slappin' hard against the sides below
The man in chains reached out and then "My God!" the Captain cried
Before he said another word, he jumped over the side


Sailors still tell stories all about the man in chains
And how he came back just to kill the Captain gone insane
They talk about McTavish and the evening that he died
They think about the ghost they saw and all get cold inside

But they'll never know I sneaked away, way back on that night
They'll never know that I was angry, out to put things right
They'll never know I tricked them, there was no ghost to see
'Twas I who killed the Captain, the man in chains was me
'Twas I who killed the Captain, the man in chains was me