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
If 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
White 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 Jacobin 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
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
If 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
White 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 Jacobin 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
Contributed by Dead End - 2012/7/23 - 16:42
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Album “Waiting for Bonaparte”
Nel 1797 in Gran Bretagna si verificarono diversi ammutinamenti degli equipaggi di parecchie imbarcazioni della Royal Navy. Le ribellioni dei marinai si scatenarono per via del cibo scarso e pessimo, del trattamento brutale da parte dei superiori e per la paga da fame. Inoltre non estranei furono gli echi della Rivoluzione Francese che nella “perfida Albione” ebbe molti sostenitori, come Thomas Paine che vi partecipò direttamente e che quasi ci rimise la zucca per mano di Robespierre…
Le due rivolte più importanti furono quelle di Spithead (vicino a Portsmouth) e di Nore (un porto nell’estuario del Tamigi). Entrambe non furono violente ma mentre la prima si risolse con una trattativa senza conseguenze per gli ammutinati, la seconda – forse per la sua impronta più rivoluzionaria e filo-francese – terminò con l’arresto e l’impiccagione del portavoce Richard Parker e di molti altri leader.
Le “Spithead and Nore mutinies” portarono ad un parziale miglioramento delle paghe e delle condizioni di vita degli equipaggi, ma ciò non impedì che alla fine dello stesso anno gli equipaggi di altre due navi inglesi, l’HMS “Hermione” e l’HMS “Marie Antoinette” (un’imbarcazione da guerra guarda caso di natali francesi) massacrassero tutti gli ufficiali e si consegnassero al nemico nei porti francesi di Gonaïves (Santo Domingo) e La Guaira (Venezuela)…