Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

William McCarty, comp. The American National Song Book. 1842.

The Dying American Tar

HIS couch was his shroud—in his hammock he died,

The shot of the Briton was true;

He breathed not a sigh, but faintly he cried,

“Adieu! my brave shipmates, adieu!

“Away to your stations! it ne’er must be said

Your banner you furl’d for a foe;

Let those stars ever shine at your mizen-mast head,

And the pathway to victory show.

“Remember the accents of Lawrence the brave,

Ere his spirit had fled to its rest;

‘Don’t give up the ship!’ let her sink ’neath the wave,

And the breeze bear her fate to the west.

“O, swear that your banner shall never be furl’d,

Let me hear the words, ‘Struck has the foe!’

And contented my soul bids adieu to the world,

To its pleasures, its pain, and its wo.”

He said—and a gun to the leeward was heard,

’Twas the enemy’s gun well he knew;

He raised up his head, and three times he cheer’d,

And expired as he utter’d “Adieu!”