Captain Death

The muse and the hero together are fir'd,
The same noble views has their bosom inspired;
As freedom they love, and for glory contend,
The muse o'er the hero still mourns as a friend;
So here let the muse her poor tribute bequeath,
To one British hero 'tis brave Captain Death,

The ship was the Terrible—dreadful to see !
His crew was as brave and as valiant as he;
Two hundred or more was their full complement,
And sure braver fellows to sea never went.
Each man was determined to spend his last breath
In fighting for Britain and brave Captain Death.

A prize they had taken diminished their force.
And soon the brave ship was lost in her course ;
The French privateer and the Terrible met,
The battle began all with horror beset:
No heart was dismay'd, each bold as Macbeth,
The sailors rejoiced, so 'did brave Captain Death.

Fire, thunder, balls, bullets, were soon heard and felt,
A sight that the heart of Bellona would melt;
The shrouds [were] all torn and the decks fill'd with blood,
And scores of dead bodies were thrown in the flood;
The flood, from the time of old Noah and Seth,
Ne'er saw such a man as our brave Captain Death.

At last the dread bullet came wing'd with his fate,
Our brave captain dropt, and soon after his mate ;
Each officer fell, and a carnage was seen,
That soon dy'd the waves to a crimson from green ;
Then Neptune rose up, and he took off his wreath,
And gave it a triton to crown Captain Death.

Thus fell the strong Terrible, bravely and bold,
But sixteen survivors the tale can unfold;
The French were the victors, tho' much to their cost,
For many brave French were with Englishmen lost.
For thus says old Time, ' Since Queen Elizabeth,
I ne'er saw the fellow of brave Captain Death.'