Hate lies close to love of gold,
Yo! ho! ho! and a bottle of rum!
Dead men's secrets are tardily told,
Yo! ho! ho! and a bottle of rum!
Dead men only the secret shall keep,
Yo! ho! ho! and a bottle of rum!
So bare the knife and plunge it deep,
Yo! ho! ho! and a bottle of rum!
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest,
Yo! ho! ho! and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest,
Yo! ho! ho! and a bottle of rum!
Possibly there are other versions builded upon the original quatrain, but I have not seen them. A good musical setting of Allison's version was published for male voices, in 1907, by the Boston Music Company. Francis Campbell is the composer, and the piece is called "On Board the Derelict."
To come back to Allison: I suppose there is little doubt that his fame is assured by this remarkable poem, so far as it is possible to predict the vagaries of fame's erratic flight; and it is pleasant to know that the controversy over authorship was happily adjusted in his lifetime. Without Champ Hitchcock and the other champions, the dispute might have been continued indefinitely, for Allison himself is far too retiring an individual to push his own claims beyond a
