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.