Stand From Under!

I was sailing in a vessel a long time ago, All the while dead against us the wind used to blow, And it seemed as if aboard us that nothing would go right, When over the Bahamas a-sailing by the night. Chorus. By the night, by the night, When over the Bahamas a-sailing by the night.

In the dark, up in the rigging, or somewhere on high, “Hallo! Stand from under!” a voice used to cry; But the Being who hallooed it was always out of sight, When over the Bahamas a-sailing by the night.

On that gloomy haunted vessel, and all among her crew, Was a dark and silent sailor whom no one ever knew; And the Voice it called the loudest when that seaman came to light, When over the Bahamas a-sailing by the night.

And we said to him one midnight when we heard it worst of all, “Your friend there in the rigging is giving you a call.” Then he looked up above him with such bitterness and spite, When over the Bahama Isles a-sailing by the night.

When the Voice with “Stand from under!” once again to him salamed, He hallooed back like thunder: “Let go then and be damned!” Like a man in desperation who expects a cruel fight, All over the Bahamas a-sailing by the night.

And as the word was spoken—like coming to a beck— A something came a-whizzing and fell down upon the deck, And the body of a mariner was there before our sight, All over the Bahama Isles a-sailing by the night.

And looking at the dead man, he said: “I do declare! An hour’s sail from Cuba I stabbed that fellow there. And now he always haunts me, though I killed him fair, in fight, All over the Bahama Isles a-sailing by the night.”

“But the devil a bit of fear have I of dead or living men, I’ve lifted him before and I can lift him up again, And pitch him in the water, and sink him out of sight, All over the Bahamas a-sailing by the night.”

He grappled with the dead man in spite of all our cries, When life and awful anger came in the corpse’s eyes; It tore him to the toffrail and held him deadly tight, All over the Bahama Isles a-sailing by the night.

And overboard together in a grapple went the two, And downward sunk before us into the water blue; But in and all around them shone a corpo-santo light, All over the Bahama Isles a-sailing by the night.

But from that very minute the wind blew well and fair, And everything went right with us when we had lost the pair; But I always shall remember while I live that awful sight, All over the Bahama Isles a-sailing by the night.

“Now that we’re gittin’ t’wards the Spanish Strand,” Said Moses Brown, a-waving his bandana, “I just propose that first of all I land— As all of us have done—at the old Havanna. Adventures there do gin’rally abound, The natives being all sus-ceptive creeters; For if romance upon this airth is found, It sartinly is ’mong the senoritas. Though he who of ’em would advantage take, Must be on hand and al’ays wide awake: Quien el diablo ha de engañar Mañana ha bien de levantar.” Meanin’ that “who the devil would deceive, Must rise uncommon early,” I believe. That is the precious time to pick a salad, As happened to the fellow in my ballad; Who carried off the booty, as the Fox Took the fair Hen from the two fighting Cocks.