Union Songs
The Bakke Boat Convicts
A Song by Vic Williams@Vic Williams 1968
We are the Bakke boat convicts,
Chain gangs from ship to ship.
We might have still been sealing
But we missed the lucky dip.Now we are freezer snowmen
So cold we croak like frogs.
We slide like half-drunk monkeys
Along the Borneo logs.And when the port is empty
And every pub is full,
There’s one ship in the harbour;
We're winging up the wool.We thought we'd earned a breather;
We asked for idle time
But we were told "You're convicts'
You're sweating out your time!"So day by day they work us,
The old, the lame, the lags.
We tried to beat the whistle
But there's one more sling of bags.But our jailers aren't so wicked
When we groan and limp and couch,
They take the legirons off us -
"You can have the Sunday off!"We are the Bakke boat convicts;
We're Kevins's merry men.
And boy, they'll never catch us
If we get free again!
Notes
See Vic Williams article 'Tiger And The Convicts'
union songs..........a selection by mark gregory