In the year of 1971
With my bags all packed and my schooldays done
I embarked on a life that was second to none
A life in the merchant navy.
In Gravesend they revealed to me
All the mysteries and the skills of the sea
And the social graces necessary
To serve in the merchant navy.
Foot-loose, fancy free, give me the waves and the rolling sea,
Loading bananas in old Fiji, that’s life in the merchant navy.
I went to sea for the very first time
On a cargo boat of the blue-star line
And with a hundred crew, well it felt so fine
To be part of the merchant navy.
It was new to me, just a raw cadet,
All the table manners and the etiquette,
Oh you’d be surprised at the guests you’d get
Onboard in the merchant navy.
Foot-loose, fancy free, give me the waves and the rolling sea,
Loading bananas in old Fiji, that’s life in the merchant navy.
Our trade routes took us all the way
To Australia and Amerikay
With passengers who would gladly pay
To sail with the merchant navy.
At the captain’s table they’d raise a jar
To the wonders of those lands afar,
Through Suez and through Panama,
Alone with the merchant navy.
Foot-loose, fancy free, give me the waves and the rolling sea,
Loading bananas in old Fiji, that’s life in the merchant navy.
Our cargoes round the world we bore
To exotic ports, from ship to shore,
From Istanbul to Singapore
You’d find the merchant navy.
At the night-time bars the crew reformed
Where the beer was cold and the brandy warmed
And the girls all loved the uniforms
Of the boys of the merchant navy.
Foot-loose, fancy free, give me the waves and the rolling sea,
Loading bananas in old Fiji, that’s life in the merchant navy.
Many years I served, all my stripes to gain
And I earned the title of a sea captain.
With just fifteen crew well I felt the strain
Of the modern merchant navy.
And danger lay in the China seas,
We were boarded by pirates and bound on our knees.
Oh they took all the money but they set us free,
Hard times in the merchant navy.
Foot-loose, fancy free, give me the waves and the rolling sea,
Loading bananas in old Fiji, that’s life in the merchant navy.
Well I’ve been retired three years or more,
With my sea-boots hanging by the door,
But I’ve still got memories by the score
Of my time in the merchant navy.
Now I sailed a single-handed race
With the wind in my hair and the sun on my face,
For you see I’ll always bear a trace
Of life in the merchant navy.
Foot-loose, fancy free, give me the waves and the rolling sea,
Loading bananas in old Fiji, that’s life in the merchant navy.
Foot-loose, fancy free, give me the waves and the rolling sea,
Loading bananas in old Fiji, that’s life in the merchant navy.
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