Sounds bad

from Gothamist

The Crabfish

The Crabfish is a ribaldhumorousfolk song of the Englishoral tradition. It dates back to the seventeenth century, appearing in Bishop Percy’s Folio Manuscript as a song named “The Sea Crabb” based on an earlier tale.

Lyrics, dating to 1620 apparently, are found here:

“Fisherman, fisherman, standing by the sea,
Have you a crabfish that you can sell to me?”
By the wayside i-diddle-dee-di-doh.

“Yes sir, yes sir, that indeed I do.
I’ve got a crabfish that I can sell to you.”
By the wayside etc.

Well, I took him on home and I thought he’d like a swim,
So I filled up the thunderjug and I threw the bastard in.

Late that night I thought I’d have a fit
When my old lady got up to take a shit.

“Husband, husband,” she cried out to me,
“The devil’s in the thunderjug and he’s got hold of me!”

“Children, children, bring the looking glass.
Come and see the crabfish that bit your mother’s ass.”

“Children, children, did you hear the grunt?
Come and see the crabfish that bit your mother’s cunt.”

That’s the end of my song and I don’t give a fuck.
There’s a lemon up my asshole and you can have a suck.

HMS Bounty

The HMS Bounty, a 180-foot sailboat, is shown submerged in the Atlantic Ocean during Hurricane Sandy approximately 90 miles southeast of Hatteras, N.C., on Oct. 29. Of the 16-person crew, the Coast Guard rescued 14, recovered a woman and is searching for the captain of the vessel. (US Coast Guard via Reuters)

via The Big Picture. The original HMS Bounty is somewhere underwater here, at Bounty Bay, Pitcairn Island.

Luis Marden discovered the remains of Bounty in January 1957. After spotting remains of the rudder (which had been found in 1933 by Parkin Christian, and is still displayed in the Fiji Museum in Suva), he persuaded his editors and writers to let him dive off Pitcairn Island, where the rudder had been found. Despite the warnings of one islander – “Man, you gwen be dead as a hatchet!” – Marden dove for several days in the dangerous swells near the island, and found the remains of the fabled ship: a rudder pin, nails, a ships boat oarlock, fittings and a Bountyanchor that he raised…

 Later in life, Marden wore cuff linksmade of nails from Bounty.

Ship’s Cats

A good Wikipedia page, well-illustrated.

Here’s Blackie, with Winston Churchill:

Here is Convoy:

Sadly, Convoy was lost when the HMS Hermione was sunk in the Mediterranean in 1942.

Here is Peebles, known for shaking hands with strangers:

Pebbles served on the HMS Western Isles, which was used to evacuate children from Guernsey before the German occupation.

And here is Tiddles:

When he sailed around Australia in 1801-3, the explorer Matthew Flinders had a cat named Trim.  According to Flinders, Trim was eaten by slaves in Mauritus some years later.  Here is a statue of Trim in Sydney:

Mrs. Chippy deserves and will receive more extensive coverage at some future date.