[Lyric] Skipper Schley (Maurice Brown Kirby)

We don’t know overmuch o’ charts or maps
We’re sure our mathematics ain’t complete
We’re just a lot of ordinary chaps
Like you’ll find in almost any U. S. fleet
We never studied naval strategee
We never even seen a battle’s plan;
But we’ve sailed wid more brave skippers than you’ve fingers on your flippers
An’ we think we’ve learnt enough to know a man

Then here’s to Skipper Schley
Drink, my dears!
Wе’ve knowed him off an’ on
For twenty yеars
From his bottom to peak
(It’s the Gawd’s own truth we speak!)
There—ain’t—no—yeller—streak
In Skipper Schley

He was always might good an’ kind to us
An’ you bet yer life we won’t forgot him now
He is better in a fight than in a fuss
An’ we wish that we could help him through his row;
But the navy’s regulations don’t provide
For common ’listed men to testify
Wot we know we cannot tell, we kin only wish him well
Wid the gang that wants to knife him of Skipper Schley
An’ here’s a toast to you
Skipper Schley!
We know ye’re truest blue
Skipper Schley!
When they’re ’vestigatin’ you
Let yer country hear yer crew
Wot knows you through an’ through
Skipper Schley!

We was wid him in the tropics, day an’ night
When the Greasers’ ships was hidin’ in the bay;
We was wid him in the thickest o’ the fight
When the Greasers’ ship come out to get away
We seen him give his orders from the bridge
When Death itself was starin’ in his face
When the screamin’ shot an’ shell flew like spirits loose from hell
An’ the connin’ tower was much the safer place

So here’s the best o’ luck
Skipper Schley!
They can’t git by yer pluck
Skipper Schley!
They may call you every name
They may write away yer fame
But we love you just the same
Skipper Schley!