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The Cyprus

She sailed from Hobart Town
Three and thirty convicts were aboard
All Macquarie Harbour bound were they
All Macquarie Harbour bound

A life in chains is sorrow for a man
Twere better he were dead
The sooner than a soldier's mercy show
The cruel sea will turn red, I swear
The cruel sea will turn red

You may plead for pity's blessed sake
But a tyrant's eye is blind
And sooner than a soldier's mercy show
The cruel sea will turn kind, I say
The cruel sea will turn kind

Aboard this ship and loaded down with chains
Was a man named Brian Malone
Twas he who said now we can take this ship
And sail her away on our own, brave boys
And sail her away on our own

The soldiers lined the decks with guns in hand
And they were craven men
But Brian Malone he pitched them overboard
And the convicts were free men again, at last
The convicts were free men again

They set their course and northerly did sail
Far from Van Diemen's Land
And swore that they never again would bow down
Beneath the tyrant's hand, no more
Beneath the tyrant's hand

They were lost and never seen again
But when the moonlight fails
The waves ride high and lightning splits the night
They say the Cypress sails , once more
They say the Cypress sails
They say the Cypress sails

Notes

First printed in Tradition, March, 1969 Collected by Ian Coggins from Maeve Chick, Battery Point, Tasmania, 1968. See also "Cyprus Brig" in this collection.

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australian traditional songs . . . a selection by mark gregory