Bestow the boat, boat-swain, anon,
That our pylgrymms may play thereon;
For some are like to cough and groan

            Ere it be full midnight.

Haul the bowline!  Now veer the sheet;
Cook, make ready anon our meat! 
Our pylgrymms have no lust to eat: 

            I pray God give them rest.

Go to the helm!  What ho! no neare[r]! 
Steward, fellow! a pot of beer! 
Ye shall have, Sir, with good cheer,

            Anon all of the best.

Y-howe!  Trussa! Haul in the brailes! 
Thou haulest not!  By God, thou failes[t]
O see how well our good ship sails! 

            And thus they say among.

* * * * *

Thys meane’whyle the pylgrymms lie,
And have their bowls all fast them by,
And cry after hot malvesy—­

            ‘Their health for to restore.’

       * * * * *

Some lay their bookys on their knee,
And read so long they cannot see. 
‘Alas! mine head will split in three!’

            Thus sayeth one poor wight.

* * * * *

A sack of straw were there right good;
For some must lay them in their hood: 
I had as lief be in the wood,

            Without or meat or drink!

For when that we shall go to bed,
The pump is nigh our beddes head: 
A man he were as good be dead

        As smell thereof the stynke!

Howe—­hissa! is still used aboard deepwater-men as Ho—­hissa! instead of Ho—­hoist away! What ho, mate! is also known afloat, though dying out. Y-howe! taylia! is Yo—­ho! tally! or Tally and belay! which means hauling aft and making fast the sheet of a mainsail or foresail. What ho! no nearer! is What ho! no higher now.  But old salts remember no nearer! and it may be still extant.  Seasickness seems to have been the same as ever—­so was the desperate effort to pretend one was not really feeling it: 

   And cry after hot malvesy—­
     ‘Their health for to restore.’

Here is another sea-song, one sung by the sea-dogs themselves.  The doubt is whether the Martial-men are Navy men, as distinguished from merchant-service men aboard a king’s ship, or whether they are soldiers who want to take all sailors down a peg or two.  This seems the more probable explanation.  Soldiers ‘ranked’ sailors afloat in the sixteenth century; and Drake’s was the first fleet in the world in which seamen-admirals were allowed to fight a purely naval action.

   We be three poor Mariners, newly come from the Seas,
   We spend our lives in jeopardy while others live at ease. 
   We care not for those Martial-men that do our states disdain,
   But we care for those Merchant-men that do our states maintain.