It's of a pretty female

As you may understand.

Her mind being bent for rambling

Unto some foreign land,

She dressed herself in sailor's clothes,

Or so it does appear,

And she hired with a captain

To serve him for a year.

Her cheeks they were like roses

And her hair rolled in a curl.

The sailors often smiled and said

He looked just like a girl.

But eating of the captain's biscuit

Her colour did destroy,

And the waist did swell of pretty Nell,

The handsome cabin boy.

It was in the bay of Biscay

Our gallant ship did plow.

One night among the sailors

Was a fearful flurry and row.*

They tumbled from their hammocks

For their sleep it did destroy,

And they sworn about the groaning

Of the handsome cabin boy.

'Oh doctor, dear, oh doctor,'

The cabin boy did cry.

'My time has come, I am undone,

And I will surely die.'

The doctor come a-runnin'

And a-smilin' at the fun.

To think a sailor lad should have

A daughter or a son.

The sailors when they saw the joke

They all did stand and stare.

The child belonged to none of them,

They solemnly did swear.

The captain's wife, she says to him,

'My dear, I wish you joy,

For 'tis either you or me's betrayed

The handsome cabin boy!'