The Token 
Charles Dibdin lived 1740-1814                     
Lyrics courtesy of www.sailorsongs.com 

The breeze was fresh, the ship was in stays
Each breaker hushed the shore a haze
When Jack no more on duty called
His true love's tokens over hauled
The broken gold, the braided hair
The tender motto, writ so fair
Upon his tobacco box he views
Nancy the poet love the muse

 

CHORUS after each verse:
If you loves
I as I loves you,
No pair so happy as we two.
The storm that like the shapeless wreck
Had strewed with rigging all the deck
That tars for sharks had given a feast
And left the ship a hulk had ceased
When Jack, as with his messmates dear
He shared the grog their hearts to cheer
Took from his tobacco box a quid
And spelled for comfort on the lid
The battle that with horror grim
Had madly ravaged life and limb
Had scupper drenched with human gore
And widowed many a wife was o'er
When Jack to his companions dear
First paid the tribute of a tear
Then O as his tobacco box he held
Restored his comfort as he spelled
The voyage, that had been long and hard
But that had yielded full reward
And bought each sailor to his friend
Happy and rich was at an end
When Jack his toils and perils o'er
Beheld his Nancy on the shore
He then the tobacco box displayed
And cried and seized the yielding maid

Lyrics courtesy of www.sailorsongs.com