The Amazon Frigate

Come, all you British seamen bold, that plow the raging main,
Come, listen to my tragedy while I relate the same ;
'Tis what we underwent all on the raging main.
Bold Reynolds was our commander in the ship called the
Amazon.

On the 30th of December in Falmouth as we lay
Our orders came on board our anchors for to weigh ;
So ' Heave away !' our captain cried; ' we have no time to spare :
We'll set our canvas to the breeze and through the ocean steer.'

Our anchors weigh'd, our sails were set, our ship she seemed to fly ;
It was the Indefatigable that bore us company.
We must bid adieu to our sweethearts because we must cross the main,
Hoping in a short time after to see them all again.

We steered our course to the southward as far as Cape Finisterre,
Cruising the seas for several days and nothing could [find there],
Till, running down the coast of Spain, three merchantmen we took,
And sent them home to England while we for more did look.

But in bearing up for England an American ship we see,
That gave us good intelligence the French was at sea.
The weather it was thick, and, under an easy sail,
The wind it blew north-north-east and it blew a briskish gale.

On the 28th of January a man sung from aloft
That he spy'd a lofty man-of-war at a distance three leagues off.
She's a very lofty ship, the truth we will declare;
She crowded all sails she could, expecting to get clear.

But we were at the heels of her, and night coming on,
At six o'clock that very night the bloody fight begun.
With broadside to broadside we play'd them two to one,
Till the blood out of the scupper holes all in a gore did run.

Both round, grape, and double-head we poured in so fast,
[That] at eight o'clock that very night down came [her] mizen mast.
We engag'd them five glasses as close as we could lay,
While great guns, small arms, and cutlasses most sweetly they did play.

The Frenchmen all for quarters aloud to us did cry ;
Their colours struck, no more could fight for love or liberty.
But the remnant of their shattered crew they unto us tell
That out of fifteen hundred men eight hundred of them fell.

This ship was call'd the Droits de l'Homme ; from Brest she lately came,
With guns mounted ninety-eight on board and fifteen hundred men.
Her intention was Ireland her troops all there to land,
But bold Pellew and his ship's crew did stop their warlike band.

Twas early the next morning the land it did appear,
And they were so disabled, from it they could not get clear;
And we were so disabled we could not veer or tack,
But down alongside our enemy we soon became a wreck.

So now the Indefatigable is bound for England's shore
To let our suffering country know the Amazon's no more.
Still, we'll drink to George our King, we'll convince him of the same,
That British tars for evermore rule lords of the main.