DESCRIPTION:
A song we gleaned on one of our many sessions. This song is written from data taken from William Hollander's diary years after his death. A story of an apprentice butcher turned pirate with disastrous consequences.

WILLIAM HOLLANDER

Oh my name is William Hollander as you may understand.
I was born in the County of Waterford close by her salt sea strand
And when I was young and in my prime. good fortune on me shone
My parents loved me tenderly. I was their only son.

My father rose one morning and along with him I did go.
He apprenticed me as a butcher's boy to Pearse in Dublin Row
And I wore their bloody aprons for three long years or more
Till I shipped on board the "Ocean Queen" belonging to Tramore.

'twas in Bermuda's sunny isle I met with Captain Moore
The skipper of the "Flying Cloud" the pride of Baltimore
And I undertook to ship with him. on a slaving voyage to go
To the burning shores of Africa. where the sugar cane does grow.

And when at last we came into Africa's burning shores
Five hundred of those weeping blacks from their native lands we tore
And we loaded them in iron chains and made them go below
There's eighteen inches to a man is all that we had to show.

Then the plague it came and the fever too and killed them off like flies
We brought their bodies up on deck and we dumped them in the tide
But those who died were luckier, for they need not grieve no more
Or wear the chains. or feel the lash, in the Cuba forever more.

Oh we robbed and plundered many a ship. both liner and frigate too.
Until a British man-of-war her gunboats hove in view
And she fired a shot across our bow, we sailed before the wind
And chain shot brought our main mast down and we fell far behind.

So fare thee well old Waterford and the girl I do adore
I'll never kiss your mouth again, aye. and squeeze your breast no more
For whiskey and bad company, has made a fool of me
So come all young men a warning take. won't you shun all piracy.