Now when I was a young man
We lived near the sea strand
And me folks kept a tavern called the Admiral's Head
And old salts by the fireside
Would tell of the seas wide
The far foreign shores and the lives that they led

And it's up and away in the morning
O' the tears me poor mother has cried
But the sea it had called me
And you may say I'm barmy
But I went to her just like a bride
And it's up and away in the morning

Well, I walked into Bristol
With cutlass and pistol
A new bo'sun's whistle and a swaggerin' stride
And without too much censure
I soon was indentured
And embarked for adventure on a bright morning's tide

And it's up and away in the morning
With the wind to our backs we will sail
And the ship may well take ya
From here to Jamaica
Where they serve up the rum by the pail
And it's up and away in the morning
After two months hard toil
We docked in Port Royal
Our virtues to spoil or at least to curtail
But the trouble with the boisterous
Sailors who roister's
Their choice is to run or to end up in jail

And it's up and away in the morning
And the salt spray tastes finer than wine
Dawn on the horizon
And the size of the prize
For the taking of a ship of the line
And it's up and away in the morning

Now some say the sea is a sickness but we
Feel the thickness of wits lest we're shortening sail
And we see the sea glint
The focsle and bowsprit
And our course is well plotted and runs fore the gale

And it's up and away in the morning
And though we may never come home
We'll think of it often
'Till the day that our lead-weighted coffins
Get tossed in the foam
And it's up and away in the morning
And it's up and away in the morning
With the wind to our backs we will sail
And the ship may well take ya
From here to Jamaica
Where the storms and the waves
They will toss ya and shake ya
And you'll do desperate deeds
For which God might forsake ya
But there's nowhere that we'd rather be
And it's up and away in the morning