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| THEY will take us from the moorings, they will tow us down the Bay, | |
| They will pluck us up to windward when we sail. | |
| We shall hear the keen wind whistle, we shall feel the sting of spray, | |
| When we’ve dropped the deep-sea pilot o’er the rail. | |
| Then it’s Johnnie heave an’ start her, then it’s Johnnie roll and go; | 5 |
| When the mates have picked the watches, there is little rest for Jack. | |
| But we’ll raise the good old chanty that the Homeward bounders know, | |
| For the girls have got the tow-rope, an’ they’re hauling in the slack. | |
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| In the dusty streets and dismal, through the noises of the town, | |
| We can hear the West wind humming through the shrouds; | 10 |
| We can see the lightning leaping when the tropic suns go down, | |
| And the dapple of the shadows of the clouds. | |
| And the salt blood dances in us, to the tune of Homeward Bound, | |
| To the call to weary watches, to the sheet and to the tack. | |
| When they bid us man the capstan how the hands will walk her round!— | 15 |
| For the girls have got the tow-rope, an’ they’re hauling in the slack. | |
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| Through the sunshine of the tropics, round the bleak and dreary Horn, | |
| Half across the little planet lies our way. | |
| We shall leave the land behind us like a welcome that’s outworn | |
| When we see the reeling mastheads swing and sway. | 20 |
| Through the weather fair or stormy, in the calm and in the gale, | |
| We shall heave and haul to help her, we shall hold her on her track, | |
| And you’ll hear the chorus rolling when the hands are making sail, | |
| For the girls have got the tow-rope, an’ they’re hauling in the slack! | |
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