'Twas in the schoon-er Kan-da-har, With Cap-tain Wil-liam Shube,
We were a crew of sev-en all told, A hap-py joy-ful crew.
And when we go to do our work We do it joy-ful-ly,
And when we al-so go on shore, We have a joll-ly good spree.

It's also when we go on shore, we dress so very neat.
We try to charm those pretty girls, Which we meet upon the street.
They boldly step up to us And they ask us who we are;
We answer them politely, "From the schooner Kandahar!"

It's then we went to Louisburg A load of coal to take,
Bound down to St. John's, Newfoundland, a quick passage we did make.
Our captain he chartered her there For the island of Barbados.
He says, "We'll get our vessel ready for the favorable winds that blows!"

After thirteen days on passage Our vessel she sprang a leak,
But it not being serious On our same old course did keep.
With the favorable trade-winds a-blowing, We arrived in four days more,
But owing to smallpox raging there We were not allowed on shore.

They wanted to quarantine us; This made our captain mad.
He says, "Give me my orders and I'll go to Trinidad!"
After telegraphing all around, which caused us much delay,
The customs officer came on board and ordered us under way.

So gladly we got under way And went to Trinidad.
After lying there a week or more, Our vessel was leaking bad.
We had to go to St. Thomas's To put her on the slip.
I tell you, there we enjoyed ourselves The best of all that trip!

It's then we went to Sant'mingo, And that's a very good port.
We loaded a load of sugar Bound up to old New York.
With the favorable breezes a-blowing, We were getting right around;
We bid adieu to the Yankee girls, For Lunenburg we were bound.

We arrived safely in Lunenburg, The place we love the best;
We opened a jug of St. Thomas's rum And I guess you'll know the rest!
Now much success to the Kandahar With Captain William Shube,
Likewise mate, cook and sailors! We were a jolly crew.

Our cook he is a very dirty man.
Ch: Sail away for the Rio Grande
He cooks the food as dirty as he can.
Ch: Sail away for the Rio Grande.

He stirred the tea with the end of a rope.
And in the bread we found a big piece of soap.

Every sailor got his fair peck of dirt.
He boiled the cap'nes puddin in the tail of his shirt.

We were schooner-rigged and rakish, with a long and lissome hull,
And we flew the pretty colours of the cross-bones and the skull;
We'd a big black Jolly Roger flapping grimly at the fore,
And we sailed the Spanish Water in the happy days of yore.

We'd a long brass gun amidships, like a well-conducted ship,
We had each a brace of pistols and a cutlass at the hip;
It's a point which tells against us, and a fact to be deplored,
But we chased the goodly merchant-men and laid their ships aboard.

Then the dead men fouled the scuppers and the wounded filled the chains,
And the paint-work all was spatter-dashed with other people's brains,
She was boarded, she was looted, she was scuttled till she sank,
And the pale survivors left us by the medium of the plank.

O! then it was (while standing by the taffrail on the poop)
We could hear the drowning folk lament the absent chicken-coop;
Then, having washed the blood away, we'd little else to do
Than to dance a quiet hornpipe as the old salts taught us to.

O! the fiddle on the fo'c's'le, and the slapping naked soles,
And the genial "Down the middle, Jake, and curtsey when she rolls!"
With the silver seas around us and the pale moon overhead,
And the look-out not a-looking and his pipe-bowl glowing red.

Ah! the pig-tailed, quidding pirates and the pretty pranks we played,
All have since been put a stop-to by the naughty Board of Trade;
The schooners and the merry crews are laid away to rest,
A little south the sunset in the Islands of the Blest.