Quarantine Shanty

Quarantine Shanty, to the tune of Banks of Newfoundland

Come all you lascar sailors, now I’ll tell you to beware
For you never can know when you’re coming home when you sign on to fare
There’s home port and the others, and the ocean lying between
And ship’s a floating prison, when you’re stuck in the quarantine

Chorus:
We’ve been six months aboard her, and we’ll sit for six months more
In quarantine ‘til the coast is clean, just off England’s shore

Back in Shanghai when we let fly, after working a run from Valdez
Stacked high with crates, we made for the straits of Malacca and then Suez
But the COVID virus spreading, flew faster than we could haul
By the time that we passed Sicily, they’d had to lock down it all

Chorus

There’s cards to play while we’re passing the days and waiting ‘til we can go
And the north-west breeze knocks through the trees, ‘til the docks are white with snow
And the chaplains bring us packages, but the owners always say
We can’t step on the land so close at hand, or go home a world away

Chorus

The bunks are cramped here on the tramp, and we huddle in the canteen
With a crew of Indian lascars and men from the Philippines
A big Norwegian captain, and a mate I think is a Dane
And the pilot-house wags a Mongolian flag for a shell company in Ukraine

Chorus

I wish once more I’d see Bangalore and the family I left behind
While I’m on deck, if they’re getting the checks, then I think I can keep my mind
But we’re going insane, while we remain with the water all around
For sailors like me, in prison at sea, til they cut the virus down

Chorus