Andrew Rose
(Captain Rogers' Cruelty)
Andrew Rose, the British sailor,
Now to you his woes I'll name.
'Twas on the passage from Barbados
Whilst on board the Martha Jane.
Wasn't that most cruel usage,
Without a friend to interpose?
How they whipped and mangled, gagged and strangled
The British sailor, Andrew Rose.
'Twas on the quarter-deck they laid him,
Gagged him with an iron bar;
Wasn't that most cruel usage
To put upon a British tar?
'Twas up aloft the Captain sent him,
Naked beneath the burning sun,
Whilst the mate did follow after,
Lashing him till the blood did run.
The captain gave him stuff to swallow;
Stuff to you I will not name,
Whilst the crew got sick with horror,
While on board the Martha Jane.
'Twas in a water-cask they put him;
Seven long days they kept him there.
When loud for mercy Rose did venture,
The Captain swore no man should go there.
For twenty days they did ill-use him,
When into Liverpool they arrived.
The Judge he heard young Andrew's story;
"Captain Rodgers, you must die."
Come all ye friends and near relations,
And all ye friends to interpose;
Never treat a British sailor
Like they did young Andrew Rose.
Although British in origin, this song was popular among American crews. After a British sailor sung Blow, Boys, Blow, which notes the brutalities aboard Yankee ships, a Yankee sailor may have countered with this ballad.
From the album notes of the compilation CD Sailor’s Songs and Sea Shanties:
The trial of Captain James Rogers for cruelly misusing members of his crew took place in 1849. Following the trial, this ballad was made by an unknown London pub poet and issued by the broadside printers A Ryle & Co of Seven Dials. Senseless cruelty was all too common on English ships, even as late as the 1850s.