[Verse 1] I was barely past a boy, with the tide in my bones When I signed my name in blood and left the world I’d known The captain stood at the rail, beard white as breaking foam Said, “The sea don’t care for prayers, son—only what you’re owed.” [Verse 2] He’d sailed beneath ten flags and buried twice his men Lost a hand to Spanish steel, lost his heart to wind He taught us how to read the stars, how to sleep in rain How every coin you ever take is bought with pain [Chorus] Oh the pirate life is hunger, and the pirate life is free It’s a warm cup of rum and a cold, cold sea You’ll laugh like a king, you’ll die like a thief That’s the truth of the life on the rolling deep [Verse 3] We chased the sun to shattered ports where the gallows swayed Split our shares on rotten docks and drank our nights away Some men prayed for mercy, some men prayed for gold Most prayed just to see one more dawn unfold [Verse 4] Storm took the captain off the bow one blackened night No cry, no prayer, just swallowed by the tide We sailed in silence till the wind began to moan Then raised his flag and called the sea our throne [Chorus] Oh the pirate life is hunger, and the pirate life is free It’s a warm cup of rum and a cold, cold sea You’ll laugh like a king, you’ll die like a thief That’s the truth of the life on the rolling deep [Bridge] There’s no home for men like us, no land that holds our name Only stories in the foam and curses in the rain But if the sea could speak, she’d say what we all knew— She takes every soul, but she makes them true [Final Chorus] Oh the pirate life is sorrow, and the pirate life is song It’s the knowing you were right even when you were wrong If I sink beneath the waves where the old flags sleep Tell the world I chose the sea—and the sea chose me [Outro] Now I stand where the captain stood, eyes on the foam With a crew of broken men and nowhere else to roam If tomorrow’s my last dawn on this endless blue I’ll meet it like a pirate does—unbowed and true
