(Traditional, new words and music by Yarrow, Stookey, Travers)

Oh, me father was the keeper of the eddystone light

And he slept with a mermaid one fine night

From this union there came three

A porpoise and a porgy and the other was me



[Chorus:]

Yo ho ho, the wind blows free, oh for the life on the rolling sea



One day as I was a-trimmin' the glim

Humming a tune from the evening hymn

A voice from the starboard shouted, "Ahoy!"

And there was me mother a-sittin' on the buoy



[Chorus]



"Oh what has become of me children three?"

Me mother then she asked of me

One was exhibited as a talking fish

The other was served in a chafing dish



[Chorus]



Then the phosporus flashed in her seaweed hair

I looked again, but me mother wasn't there

But I heard her voice echoing back through the night:

"The devil take the keeper of the Eddystone light!"



[Chorus]



Oh the moral of the story you'll learn when you find

To leave God's creatures for what nature had in mind

For fishes are for cookin', mermaids are for tales

Seaweed is for sushi and protecting is for whales



Chorus