English translation

And when we now to Hamburg come, Then we know what we'll do, We'll buy a gal for fivepence, On the corner of David Street.
Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah! We'll buy a gal for fivepence on the corner of David Street.
There's also little Mary, A smasher of a gal, If you catch her in the evening, There's no room for complaint. And then there is Fat Annie, She is a lovely doll, When Johnny he comes in from sea, She's waiting for to hook him. Then we go up to St. Pauli, There's always something on, When they see you they start cheering, "Hey, Fritzy - come along!" And up the Grosse Freiheit, Oh, lads, what an awful row, An' before you know what's happening, A girl's hooked on your arm. An' when we have blown all our pay, Then I'll know what I will do, All you girls can kiss my stern, An' I'll go back to sea!

Stan Hugill picked up this Plattdeutsch song either at sea or from the German shanty collection Knurrkahn. It is a sort of catalog of the deerns (prostitutes) of David Street, where they are cheaper, and the Groote Freiheit, where they operate indoors. He explains that the nitrate traders of the late nineteenth century enjoyed this song.

Davidstrasse, St. Pauli fishmarket, and Grosse Freiheit are still identifiable in Hamburg today.