Once I was a waiting man who lived at home at ease
Now I am a mariner that ploughs the stormy seas
I always loved seafaring life I bid my love adieu
I shipped as steward and cook me boys on board the 
kangaroo

I never thought she would prove false or either prove 
untrue
As we sailed away from Milford Bay on board the 
Kangaroo

Think of me oh think of me she mournfully did say
When you are in a foreign land and I am far away
And take this lucky thrupenny bit it will make you bear 
in mind
This loving trusting faithful heart you left in tears 
behind

Cheer up, cheer up my own true love don't weep so 
bitterly
She sobbed she sighed she choked she cried till she 
could not say goodbye
I won't be gone for very long but for a month or two
And when I return again of course I'll visit you

Our ship it was homeward bound from manys the foreign 
Manys the foreign present unto my love I bore
I brought tortoises from Tenerife and ties from 
Timbuktu
A China rat, a Bengal cat and a Bombay cockatoo

Paid off I sought her dwelling on a street above the 
town
Where an ancient dame upon the line was hanging out her 
gown
Where is my love? she's vanished sir about six months 
ago
With a smart young man who drives the van for Chaplin 
Son & Co.

Here's a health to dreams of married life to soap suds 
and blue
Heart's true love, patent starch and washing soda too
Ill go into some foreign shore no longer can I stay
With some China Hottentot I'll throw my life away

My love she was no foolish girl her age it was two 
score
My love she was no spinster she'd been married twice 
before
I cannot say it was her wealth that stole my heart away
She was a washer in the laundry for one and nine a day