The Lowland Sea

“Oh sailed you by the Goodwins,
     Oh came you by the Sound,
 And saw you there my true love
     That was homeward bound? ”

“Oh never will he anchor
     Again by England’s shore;
 A-sailing by the Lowlands
     Your sailor comes no more.

“They gave his ship her death-blow
     As she was sailing by,
 And every soul aboard her,
     Oh, they left them all to die.

“They were not common pirates
     Nor rovers of Sallee,
 But gentlemen of high estate
     Come out of Germanie!

“It was no worthy gentleman
     Though he were crowned King;
 It was no honest seaman
     That wrought so vile a thing!

“But the foulest of all pirates
     That ever sailed the sea,
 And they should swing as pirates swing
     Upon the gallows tree,
 A-sailing by the Lowlands
     That took my lad from me!"

From Punch, 1915
Image: Painting by Willy Stöwer, 1917