We are two mariners
Our ship's sole survivors
In this belly of a whale

It's ribs are ceiling beams
It's guts are carpeting
I guess we have some time to kill


You may not remember me
I was a child of three

And you, a lad of eighteen
But, I remember you
And I will relate to you

How our histories interweave
At the time you were
A rake and a roustabout

Spending all your money
On the !@^%s and hounds
(oh, oh)


You had a charming air
All cheap and debonair

My widowed mother found so sweet
And so she took you in
Her sheets still warm with him

Now filled with filth and foul disease
As time wore on you proved
A debt-ridden drunken mess

Leaving my mother
A poor consumptive wretch
(oh, oh)


And then you disappeared
Your gambling arrears

The only thing you left behind
And then the magistrate
Reclaimed our small estate

And my poor mother lost her mind
Then, one day in spring
My dear sweet mother died

But, before she did
I took her hand as she, dying, cried:
(oh, oh)


"Find him, find him
Tie him to a pole and break

His fingers to splinters
Drag him to a hole until he
Wakes up naked

Clawing at the ceiling
Of his grave"


It took me fifteen years
To swallow all my tears
Among the urchins in the street

Until a priory
Took pity and hired me
To keep their vestry nice and neat

But, never once in the employ
Of these holy men
Did I ever, once turn my mind

From the thought of revenge
(oh, oh)


One night I overheard
The prior exchanging words
With a penitent whaler from the sea

The captain of his ship
Who matched you toe to tip
Was known for one cruel deed

The following day
I shipped to sea
With a privateer

And in the whistle
Of the wind
I could almost hear

(oh, oh)

"Find him, find him
Tie him to a pole and break
His fingers to splinters

Drag him to a hole until he
Wakes up naked
Clawing at the ceiling
Of his grave


There is one thing I must say to you
As you sail across the sea
Always, your mother will watch over you
As you avenge this wicked deed"


And then, that fateful night
We had you in our sight
After twenty months, it seemed
Your starboard flank abeam
I was getting my muskets clean

When came this rumbling from beneath
The ocean shook
The sky went black
And the captain quailed
And before us grew
The angry jaws

Of a giant whale

(oh..)

Don't know how I survived
The crew all was chewed alive
I must have slipped between his teeth

But, oh, what providence
What divine intelligence
That you should survive
As well as me
It gives my eye great joy
To see your eyes fill with fear
To lean in close

And I will whisper
The last words you'll hear
(oh, oh)