A sea-faring man
And a captain bold,
At least that is what
All his men were told,

He wrote of bravery
In his log each night
But things that he wrote
Were never quite right.

The men all knew things
Not put in his log.
To his back they called
Him, ”Old Yellowdog”.

From any fair fight,
He would cut and run
Like a hunting dog
That’s scared of a gun.

But alas one day
He’d no place to hide,
Pirates were climbing
Up over the side.

With voice full of fear,
He told his first mate,
“Bring me my red shirt
Before it’s too late.”

“Then if I’m wounded
The men won’t all know;
Wearing my red shirt,
My blood might not show.”

Now the first mate knew
This was outrageous,
He knew the Captain
Was not courageous.

But he went and fetched
The shirt that was red
Handing it over
Sarcastically said,

“I brought your red shirt,
So blood won’t show through
Also your brown pants,
You might need them too.”