CZTERY REFY - The Saltpetre Shanty

The Saltpetre Shanty

Words traditional
Music traditional: "The Saltpetre Shanty"

To old Cally-oh we are bound to go - Oh Roll!
To old Cally-oh we are bound to go - Oh Roll!
We are bound away from Liverpool Bay,
To those flash girls of Chile who'll grab all our pay

Oh roll, rock your bars. Heave 'er high-oh, rock her, oh roll! Old Pedro the crimp, boys, we know him of old - Oh Roll!
Old Pedro the crimp, boys, we know him of old - Oh Roll!
He's primin' his vino, he's dopin' his beer,
To the Chinchas he'll ship us if we don't steer clear

Oh roll, rock your bars. Heave 'er high-oh, rock her, oh roll! Those flash girls of Chile they are hard to beat - Oh Roll!
Those flash girls of Chile they are hard to beat - Oh Roll!
They'll greet us and love us and treat us to wine,
But we know they are robbing us most of the time.

Oh roll, rock your bars. Heave 'er high-oh, rock her, oh roll! And when it comes time to sail away home - Oh Roll!
And when it comes time to sail away home - Oh Roll!
From some old seaport town on the west coast of hell,
We'll sing "Adios" and we'll wish you all well.

Oh roll, rock your bars. Heave 'er high-oh, rock her, oh roll!

"The Saltpetre Shanty" - They say that the original is considered to be one of the most obscene seaman’s shanties and has never been printed in a genuine full version. Different four-letter words have been hidden in “pidgin-Spanish” - a peculiar sailor’s jargon containing the “Anglo- Spanish” vocabulary.

"Szanta saletrowa" is a Polish version of this song.