Source: Horntip Collection - Half-Mind Hymnal 2011

Lyrics

Oh, gather round you sailor boys, and listen to my plea, ‘Cause when you’ve heard it you will pity me. ‘Cause I was a Goddamn fool, in the port of Liverpool, The first time that I came home from the sea.

CHORUS: Oh, my darling Maggie May, They have taken her away, And no more down Lime Street will she roam. For the judge he guilty found her, for robbing a homeward bounder, That dirty, robbin’, no good Maggie May.

I was a sailor bound for home, all the way from Sierra Leone, And two pound ten a month had been my pay. As I jingled in my tin, I was sadly taken in, By the lady of the name of Maggie May.

When I steered into her, I just hadn’t a care, I was cruisin’ up and down ol’ Canning Place. She was dressed in a gown so fine, like a frigate of the line, And I bein’ a sailorman, I gave chase.

She gave me a saucy nod, and I like a farmer’s clod, Let her take me line abreast in tow. And under all plain sail, we ran before the gale, And to the Crow’s Nest Tavern we did go.

Next morning when I awoke, I found that I was broke, No trousers, coat, or wallet could I find. And when I asked her where, she said, “My dear young sir, You’ll find them in the pawnshop, number nine.”

To the pawnshop I did go, no trousers could I find, So the cops they came and took this girl away. Oh, you thieving Maggie May, you robbed me of my pay, It’ll pay your fare right out to Botany Bay.

She was chained and sent away, from Liverpool one day, The lads they cheered as she sailed down the bay. And every sailor lad, he only was too glad, They’d sent the old tart out to Botany Bay.

Oh, Maggie, Maggie May, they have taken you away, For to stay on Van Dieman’s cruel shore. Oh, you robbed many a whaler, and many a drunken sailor, But you’ll never cruise ‘round Liverpool no more.