THE CAPTAIN'S GIG.
If you pull an oar in the captain's gig,
You must mind how you behave;
You must shift to your cleanest white or blue
And you mustn't want for a shave.
For you're under the old man's eye,
And the ladies watch you, too;
So put on your Sunday morning face
And your cleanest suit of blue.
Oh, the lads that pull in the captain's gig
They must mind their p's and q's;
They've got to go light on a juicy quid
And mind that they black their shoes.
They must watch their stroke like a racing crew,
And keep their eyes in the boat;
They must do their mile in the proper style
From the ship to the government float.
Oh, the lads who pull in the captain's gig
They hears a lot of talk;
They learns what the officers say to the girls
That they meets on the yacht-club walk.
They must wait all day in the broilin' sun
While the old man goes ashore.
They takes a cargo of calico out
And then goes back for more.
The captain, he's proud of his crack-a-jack gig;
He's a friend of each man in the crew,
And he knows 'em by name and who they are
As well as me or you;
For he picks 'em out with a knowin' eye:
Sure he wants no soldiers there,
But handy men at the word, now then,
Who can lift her along for fair!
BRASS-BOUND.
"Jack o' turret" is a different man in many ways from "Jack o' the forec'sle." But he is the same sailorman when you know him well. He will fight, and skylark, spend his last penny, and spree it when he gets ashore; but we like him, God bless him ! and we always will. Now the modern product is modern—that's all the difference. He is characterized by a complete up-to-dateness. He doesn't "shiver his timbers," because he has mighty few timbers to shiver. He uses the latest slang, and often carries the street into the forecastle. He sings the popular ditties, and he follows the baseball scores in the papers. If he is ambitious, he seeks to change the old blue shirt by earning promotion. If he gets high enough, he becomes a "petty officer, first class," and that entitles him to wear a double-breasted coat with brass buttons. "Brass-bound" Jack calls this; and the top notch is "Jimmy Legs, Master at Arms," the king pin of the ship. He looks after the order, and his eye is feared. Jack is not altogether respectful to the bird of freedom; he calls him "a crow" and, like as not, "a buzzard;" but this is only when he appears as a mark of authority on the arm of a "brass-bound" man.
Oh, Jimmy Legs he walks the deck,
Brass buttons down his coat,
A buzzard and stripe he wears on his sleeve,
He's the biggest man afloat.
The lads who smuggle the "stuff" on board
They know when he's around,
And skylarkin' drops and the fightin' stops
Because he is brass-bound.
I'm a-goin' to be brass-bound
Before I leaves the ship;
I'm goin' to sport a crow of my own
And I won't take nobody's lip.
I ain't ashamed of a shirt—
(And I wears a ratin' mark,)
But I mades up my mind as a 'prentice boy
(When walkin' in Central Park,)
I was goin' to be brass-bound
Before I left the sea,
And buzzard and stripe
And a bo'sun's pipe
Are waitin' somewhere for me.
