The Colours

I am a member of the council of the naval mutiny
 And no traitor to my conscience having done my sworn duty
 These are my last words before the scaffold and I charge you all to hear
 How a wretched British sailor became a citizen mutineer
 Pressed into service to carry powder I was loyal to the crack of the whip
 It I starved on the streets of Bristol, I starved worse on a British ship
 Red is the colour of the new republic
 Blue is the colour of the sea
 White is the colour of my innocence
 Not surrender to your mercy
 I was woken from my misery by the words of Thomas Paine
 On my barren soil they fell like the sweetest drops of rain
 Red is the colour of the new republic
 Blue is the colour of the sea
 While is the colour of my innocence
 Not surrender to your mercy
 So in the spring of the year we took the fleet
 Every cask and cannon and compass sheet
 And we flew a Jacobean flag to give us heart
 While Pitt stood helpless we were waiting for Bonaparte
 Red is the colour of the new republic
 Blue is the colour of the sea
 White is the colour of my innocence
 Not surrender to your mercy
 All you soldiers, all you sailors, all you labourers of the land
 All you beggars, all you builders, all you come here to watch me hang
 To the masters we are the rabble, we are the 'swinish multitude'
 But we can re-arrange the colours of the red and the white and the blue
 Red is the colour of the new republic
 Blue is the colour of the sea
 White is the colour of my innocence
 Not surrender to your mercy
 Red is the colour of the new republic
 Blue is the colour of the sea
 White is the colour of my innocence
 Not surrender to your mercy