Rusty Cage - The Final Voyage Of The Wailers Essex

          C            Em           Am            C
I done my level best, to whomever's concerned
    C            Em           F            G
For children of wailer's, we all take a turn
        Dm         G                 C        Am
Now we lay in our oars boat, us six men at sea
      Dm         G                 C        Am
And travel for home with rations for three
      Dm         G                 C        Am
Two ounces fresh water and hardtack a day
 F                   G       C
But we'll see Nantucket again

   C            Em           Am            C
Forty days and forty nights, we followed the wind
    C            Em           F            G
In the southern Pacific, many miles from land
     Dm         G                 C        Am
The first mate of Essex, and few crew with me
     Dm         G                 C        Am
Our captain George Pollard is lost at the sea
    Dm         G                 C        Am
And I look to the East and see nothing but blue
   F                   G       C
So what can us starving men do?

      C     G       F                G
But sing, sing, we're on our way home
    C     G       F                G7
Across the Pacific, and through the unknown
   C                E7                        Am
With God as our shepherd then no harm shall pass
 F              G            C
We'll be in Nantucket at last

    C7            F                          F7
But oh, how this skin of blistered leather pulls tight on our skulls
 C             E7       Am
As rations all dwindle away
     C7               F              F7
And oh, how our dreams every night, of our stomachs so full
   Dm          G       C                   Am
But awake to find water to last two more days
      Dm          G       C                   Am
Our spirits all broken, our minds are all crazed
    Dm          G       C                Em   Am
And oh, how I'd kill for just one more good meal
     F            G            C
But home's a little farther away

      C     G       F                G
But sing, sing, we're on our way home
    C     G       F                G7
Across the Pacific, and through the unknown
   C                E7                        Am
With God as our shepherd then no harm shall pass
 F              G            C
We'll be in Nantucket at last

         C7            F                          F7
But oh, when I look at my crewman, I see them looking back at me
   C             E7       Am
Humanity gone from their eyes
 C7               F              F7
Once we were men of our god, and brothers at sea
   Dm          G       C                   Am
Those times weren't so long ago, but how quick they pass
  Dm          G       C                   Am
Was once death a stranger, now approaching us fast
  Dm          G       C                   Am
But we are Nantucket, the proud and the strong
   F            G            C
For Nantucket, we must travel on

    C7            F                          F7
But oh, how these hunger pangs drive all the thoughts in my brain
 C             E7       Am
And body dries up in the sun
 C7               F              F7
Oh, cause it's meat and fresh water that the six of us crave
  Dm          G       C                   Am
So six bits of paper are tossed in the cap
   Dm          G       C                   Am
And six men reach in and each pull out a scrap
   Dm          G       C                   Am
And one man of six, with the unlucky draw
 F            G            C
Is one man to help feed us all