Christmas At Sea chords by The Longest Johns

Chords with lyrics

Tuning: Standard (E MajorE A augmentedA D MajorD G+G BB E MajorE)

Verse:
  C majorC                 G+G
The sheets were frozen hard, and they cut the naked hand;
  C majorC                FF
The decks were like a slide, where a seaman scarce could stand;
  A minorAm               C majorC
The wind was a nor'wester, blowing squally off the sea;
  C majorC                   G+G
And cliffs and spouting breakers were the only things a-lee

Verse:
   C majorC            G+G
They heard the surf a-roaring before the break of day;
   C majorC                  FF
But 'twas only with the peep of light we saw how ill we lay
  A minorAm             C majorC
We tumbled every hand on deck instanter, with a shout
    A minorAm                 G+G
And we gave her the maintops'l, and stood by to go about

Verse:
  C majorC                  G+G
All day we tacked and tacked between the South Head and the North;
  C majorC                  FF
All day we hauled the frozen sheets, and got no further forth;
  A minorAm             C majorC
All day as cold as charity, in bitter pain and dread
  A minorAm           G+G
For very life and nature we tacked from head to head

Verse:
  C majorC                 G+G
We gave the South a wider berth, for there the tide-race roared;
  C majorC                 FF
But every tack we made we brought the North Head close aboard:
  A minorAm                 C majorC
We saw the cliffs and houses, and the breakers running high
    A minorAm                 G+G
And the coastguard in his garden, with his glass against his eye

Verse:
  C majorC                 G+G
The frost was on the village roofs as white as ocean foam;
  C majorC                   FF
The good red fires were burning bright in every 'long-shore home;
  A minorAm               C majorC
The windows sparkled clear, and the chimneys volleyed out;
   A minorAm                 G+G
And I vow we sniffed the victuals as the vessel went about

Verse:
  C majorC                   G+G
The bells upon the church were rung with a mighty jovial cheer;
     C majorC                   FF
For it's just that I should tell you how, of all days in the year,
   A minorAm            C majorC
This day of our adversity was blessed Christmas morn
    A minorAm                  G+G
And the house above the coastguard's was the house where I was born

Verse:
 C majorC                 G+G
O well I saw the pleasant room, the pleasant faces there
  C majorC               FF
My mother's silver spectacles, my father's silver hair;
  A minorAm                C majorC
And well I saw the firelight, like a flight of homely elves
  A minorAm                 G+G
Go dancing round the china-plates that stand upon the shelves

Verse:
  C majorC                 G+G
And well I knew the talk they had, the talk that was of me
    C majorC                FF
Of the shadow on the household and the son that went to sea;
  A minorAm               C majorC
And O the wicked fool I seemed, in every kind of way
   A minorAm                G+G
To be here and hauling frozen ropes on blessed Christmas Day

Verse:
   C majorC                G+G
They lit the high sea-light, and the dark began to fall
   C majorC                  FF
"All hands to loose topgallant sails," I heard the captain call
  A minorAm                C majorC
"By Lord, she'll never stand it," our first mate Jackson, cried
   A minorAm             G+G
"It's one way or the other, Mr. Jackson," he replied

Verse:
  C majorC                 G+G
She staggered to her bearings, but the sails were new and good
    C majorC                 FF
And the ship smelt up to windward just as though she understood
    A minorAm               C majorC
As the winter's day was ending, in the entry of the night
  A minorAm               G+G
We cleared the weary headland, and passed below the light

Verse:
  C majorC                 G+G
And they heaved a mighty breath, every soul on board but me
  C majorC                FF
As they saw her nose again pointing handsome out to sea;
  A minorAm                C majorC
But all that I could think of, in the darkness and the cold
  A minorAm                 G+G
Was just that I was leaving home and my folks were growing old