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