Skull 'n' Bones

Hoist the skull and bones boys,
Run it up the pole,
Let 'em know that we're here,
For the treasure and the gold,
We'll spare them if they yield,
Or we'll put them to the blade,
In a fate they'll decide,
With a choice that they've made.

Yo-he-ho, Yo-he-ho,
Hoist the Skull 'n' Bones boys,
Yo, Yo-he-ho,
Hoist the Skull 'n' Bones.

Eighteen cannon gun deck,
And nine bonny sails,
That will close up the gap,
Till our firepower prevails,
Haul 'em in on the rope,
Till the time comes to board,
When their ship's for the taking,
And we claim our reward.

Yo-heave-ho, Yo-heave-ho,
Hoist the Skull 'n' Bones boys,
Yo, Yo-heave-ho,
Hoist the Skull 'n' Bones.

Heroes of the trade wars,
Blackguards of the sea,
King George made the pirates,
Out of patriots like me,
To appease Spain and France,
He renounced privateers,
So we'll rob the British too,
And we won't waste our tears.

Yo-he-ho, Yo-he-ho,
Hoist the Skull 'n' Bones boys,
Yo, Yo-he-ho,
Hoist the Skull 'n' Bones.

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[img]https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/art/2023/03/28/TELEMMGLPICT000329802850_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqDBlSAAaLYWttT4g923Kh0nHHDqhJh2GC-bmqrQUrhIM.jpeg[/img]

[notes]
Come on, who dosen't love a good pirate tale? Well, you lot if past experience is
anything to go by.

You may have noticed that during the pandemic - when I started posting the odd
lyric here - there was something of a revival of sea-shanty style folk singing.
Interesting to see/hear a cappella voices co-ordinated over Zoom / TikTok I thought.
And you don't need any of those troublesome musician types!

A "Sea Shanty" is traditionally associated with co-ordinating labour (turning
capstains, hauling in sheets etc) as opposed to a "Sea Song" which is simply any
song sung in leisure time for entertainment (generally more lyrical and personal).
I wouldn't really be so pompous as to claim this is either - it's just me having fun.

"Yo-he-ho"* or more fully "Yo-heave-ho" are known to have been chanted by actual
sailors in the classical age of sail while hauling on ropes. The now more familair
"Yo ho ho" construct (as in a bottle of rum...) Is very much the invention of
Robert Louis Stevenson - he and his contempories wrote wonderful books but intruduced
any number of fallacious tropes into pirate lore (like "walking the plank") for which
there is no historical basis whatsoever. And which have long endured...

Actually, the "Skull and 'Bones" was far from universal, many notorious pirates had
their own flag. Debate rages today about the correct flag of Edward "Blackbeard" Teach.

"Privateers" (as referenced in v3) were state-sanctioned pirates who plundered the
trade ships of those nations with whom you were at war to inflict economic damage.
Naturally enough, making themselves pretty wealthy in the process - British examples
on the "right side" of history include Francis Drake who still enjoys national hero
status.

By the time of Edward Teach it was a capital crime that multiple nations
and their agencies sought to eradicate. Further proof (were it needed) that criminality
is far more a function of time and convenience than actual morality. It's also worth
noting that by the end of the so-called "Golden Age of Piracy" in 17th / 18th centuries
the "good guys" were fully engaged in the slave trade. Moral high ground my A**.

One often neglected fact is that most pirate ships elected their captains by crew-wide
ballot making them about the most democratic institutions in the entire world at the
time - and still way more democratic and inclusive that most work-places today.

I'm not here to condone the armed robbery or indeed murder which is intrinsic to
pirate life - but from Byron to Gilbert & Sullivan to Errol Flynn to Johnny Depp the popular
imagination still seems to love the bad guys (and girls lest we forget Anne Bonney
and Mary Read!)

[img]https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2022/01/GettyImages_587837554-bf25eb0.jpg[/img]

* "Yo-he-ho" is also the name given to one of the many theories on the development of all
language - centering on the idea that human communication began with grunts and noises
made to co-ordinate work.

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