You merchant men of Billingsgate,
I wonder how you thrive.
You bargain with men for six months
And pay them but for five.

This was an abuse that took a long time to die out. Even well on in the
nineteenth century, and sometimes even on board of steamers, victualling
was only by the lunar month though service went by the calendar.

A cursed cat with thrice three tails
Doth much increase our woe

is a poetical way of putting another seaman's grievance.

People who regret that there is such a discrepancy between genuine
sea-songs and shore-going imitations will be glad to know that the
_Mermaid_ is genuine, though the usual air to which it was sung afloat
was harsh and decidedly inferior to the one used ashore. This example of
the old 'fore-bitters' (so-called because sung from the fore-bitts, a
convenient mass of stout timbers near the foremast) did not luxuriate in
the repetitions of its shore-going rival: _With a comb and a glass in
her hand, her hand, her hand_, etc.

_Solo_. On Friday morn as we set sail
It was not far from land,
Oh, there I spied a fair pretty maid
With a comb and a glass in her hand.

_Chorus_. The stormy winds did blow,
And the raging seas did roar,