A Famous
SEA FIGHT.
BETWEEN
Captain, Ward, and his Majestys Ship the Rainbow.
Tune of, Tis when the Seas were roaring, etc.
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STrike up ye lusty Gallants,
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With Music sound of Drum;
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For we have espyd a Rover,
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That to our Seas is come;
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His Name you know is Captain Ward,
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Right well it doth appear,
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There has not been such a Rover,
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Found out these thousand Years.
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For he hath sent unto our King,
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The Sixth of January,
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Desiring that he might come in,
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With all his Company;
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And if our King will let me come,
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Till I my Tale have told;
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I will bestow for thy Ransom,
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Full thirty Tun of Gold.
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O nay! O nay! then said our King,
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O nay! this may not be,
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To yield to such a vile Rover,
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Myself cannot agree,
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He hath deceived the Frenchmen,
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Likewise the King of Spain,
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And how can he be true to me,
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That hath been false to twain.
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With that our King provided,
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A Ship of worthy Fame,
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Rainbow is what shes always calld,
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If you would know her Name;
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Now the brave and gallant Rainbow.
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She roves along the Sea,
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Five hundred gallant Seamen,
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To bear her Company.
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The Dutchmen and the bold Spaniards,
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She made them for to fly;
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Also the bonny brisk Frenchmen,
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As she met them on the Sea,
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When as this bold gallant Rainbow,
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Did come where Ward did lie,
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Where is the Captain of this Ship,
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This brave Rainbow did cry.
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Oh! thats I says the Captain Ward,
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Theres no Man bids me lie;
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And if thou art the Kings fair Ship,
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Thou art welcome to me;
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Ill tell thee what says the Rainbow,
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Our King is in great Grief,
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That thou shouldst lie upon the Sea,
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And play the arrant Thief.
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And will not let our Merchant Ships,
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Pass as they did before;
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Such Tidings to our King is come,
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Which grieves his Heart full sore:
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With that this gallant Rainbow,
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Did shoot out of her Pride,
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Full fifty gallant Pieces,
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Charged on every Side.
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Although these gallant Shooters
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Prevailed not a Pin;
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Though they were Brass on the Outside
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Yet Ward was Steel within:
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Shoot on shoot on, says Captain Ward,
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Your Sport well pleaseth me;
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And he that now first giveth oer,
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Shall yield unto the Sea.
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I never wrongd an English Ship,
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But Turks, and King of Spain,;
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And for the jovial Dutchmen.
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Which I met on the Main:
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If I had known who was your King,
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But one two Years before,
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I would have savd brave Essexs Life,
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Whose Death did grieve me sore.
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Go tell the King of England,
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Go tell him thus from me,
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If he reigns King of all the Land,
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I will reign King at Sea.
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With that the gallant Rainbow shot,
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And shot and shot in vain,
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And left the Rovers Company,
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And returned Home again.
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Our Royal King of England,
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Our Ships returnd again;
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[F]or Wards is stout and strong,
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And never will be taen;
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O everlasting, says our King,
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I have lost Jewels Three,
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Which would have gone unto the Seas,
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And brought proud Ward to me.
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The first was the Lord Clifford,
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Brave Earl of Cumberland;
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The second was the Lord Mountjoy,
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As you shall understand:
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The third was the valiant Essex,
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From Field would never flee;
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Which would have gone unto the Seas,
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And brought proud Ward to me.
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