Sounding the Bowl

If a sailor would not like a lubber appear, He must very well know how to hand, reef, and steer But a better manoeuvre 'mongst seamen are found, 'Tis the tight little maxim to know how to sound; Which a sailor should learn, from a bay to a shoal, But the best kind of sounding is sounding the bowl.

I've sounded ashore, and I've sounded at sea, I've sounded a-weather, I've sounded a-lee; I've sounded my quine at the rendezvous house, And I've sounded my purse, without finding a souse; What then, we've a brother in each honest soul, And sailors can ne'er want for sounding the bowl.

All men try for sounding, wherever they steer, Your Nabobs for soundings try hard in Cape Clear; And there is not a soul, from the Devil to the Pope, That could live but for sounding the Cape of Good-Hope; Nor fear then, nor danger, our hearts shall controul, Tho' at sea we're in soundings, while sounding the bowl.