[SPOKEN INTRO:] Aye… listen close, ye sorry lot. This ain’t no tale for the soft or the sober. They say the sea’s got a will of her own — cruel and endless. And no man’s proved it truer than One-Eyed John. He sails the Salty Maiden, a black-hearted beauty that should’ve sunk a hundred times over. She’s torn by cannon fire, her sails full o’ holes, and her crew full o’ ghosts. John’s been shot, stabbed, drowned, and hung — yet the bastard still walks. Him and that cursed crew of his, ridin’ the Salty Maiden through storms and slaughter, never findin’ port nor peace. Every few moons they crawl back to Tortuga, lookin’ for rum, coin, or another fool’s map to doom. They can’t rest, and they don’t want to. For as long as there’s gold to steal and storms to chase, the Salty Maiden will haunt the sea — and One-Eyed John’ll keep her screamin’ his name. [SONG STARTS – singing begins here] (Verse 1) In the bars o’ Tortuga where the shadows all grin, And the rum flows like sin through the holes in yer skin, There sits One-Eyed John with his ghostly-eyed crew, Laughin’ loud at the tales that the dead never knew. (Chorus) Raise yer glass, ye dogs o’ fate! Drink to the sea we’ll never escape! Cursed we be, but we’ll sail ‘til dawn— On the Salty Maiden with One-Eyed John! (Verse 2) They say Death tried to claim him, but John spat in his face, And the sea took his soul to a darker place, Now the wind never rests and the tide never sleeps, And his ship haunts the waves where the black water weeps. (Chorus) Raise yer glass, ye dogs o’ fate! Drink to the sea we’ll never escape! Cursed we be, but we’ll sail ‘til dawn— On the Salty Maiden with One-Eyed John! (Bridge) Tortuga’s the haven for the lost and the damned, Where the bold find their fate and the meek be unplanned, Adventurers come with their maps and their lies, Seekin’ fortune and fame ‘neath the cursed black skies. (Verse 3) There’s always a quest in the smoke and the song, A whisper o’ treasure where the brave belong, And though every soul knows their doom’s near drawn, They’ll still chase the horizon with One-Eyed John! (Final Chorus) Raise yer glass, ye dogs o’ fate! Drink to the sea we’ll never escape! Cursed we be, but we’ll sail ‘til dawn— On the Salty Maiden with One-Eyed John! (Outro – spoken, with a grin and a clink of mugs) “To the cursed, the brave, the lost and the mad— The sea took our souls, but we die never sad. For there’s always a quest, and the night rolls on— So drink to the curse… and One-Eyed John!”
