Billie Watts- the last pirate

Billie, Billie Watts

The last Pirate of the time

In an age of floating clocks

Where water turned into Wine

He was sent on transport docks

For committing a petty crime

Well Billie, Billie Watts

Can you please tell me the time?

It's a quarter to four in the morning

I was born tired and yawning

My mother put on the fire in the hearth

There was warmth and there was mirth

At the hour of my birth

But the fire cried out the last laugh was mine

Oh Billie, Billie Watts will you please tell me the time?

For your story is a long one and we must know of your crime

Well my mother was a poor one and she soon died in time

I became an Orphan child oh but the fire blew wild

Still they gave me to the church in the village of my Birth

And Christ he saved my life on the path where lives cross

I was given to my new father Edward Watts pipe maker

Oh Billie, Billie Watts, will you please tell us the time?

How came you to be lost to this village of thine?

It was as the century turned that I began to learn

My trade that would set me up for my life

I learnt to make clay pipes and carved them with a knife

And the villagers smoked my pipes from all around

Oh Billie, Billie Watts will you please tell us the time?

How came you to be convicted of such a crime?

It is the summer of 1815 and the sky turned dark and grey

From volcanic ash by an eruption in Indonesia they say

Nobody bought my pipes and my masters were not paid

So I was laid off work and in that poor state I stayed

The weathers they were cruel it was cold and snow ruled

In Oakhill not a scrap of food could be spared

I had to beg and borrow and when that failed I could not swallow

And to feed my hunger I stole so I wouldn't starve

Oh Billie, Billie Watts will you tell us what time it is

Is it time for you to be on your way?

Yes I was but a lad of eighteen when the law caught up with me

But I was old enough to know the score

They tried me in the docks and and instead of in the stocks

I was put on a boat bound for Australia

For the next six years, I worked with sweat and tears

And tried to build a life in Van Diemen's land

Life there was hard, but still, I could rely on my skill

That I had learnt back in my home village of Oakhill

Oh Billie, Billie Watts can you tells us what time you've got?

How you lived and you made a living down under?

I lived in this harsh land of devils and sea and sand

But still turned my hand to thieving

Something would turn my head though I'd known I was misled

I did the crime though still believing

I was lashed 200 times for my various crimes

And had so many scars I stopped counting

Oh Billie Billie Watts will you tell us what time you've got

For our clocks have all stopped at the feeling

It is 1821 and my new life had begun, When I married my Mrs Esther Wright

She was a convict just like me, and in our hearts we both were free

From the laws that robbed us of our homelands

I sold bootleg liquor and my boots were quicker, 

Than the lawmen who chased me up and down the country

But they finally caught up with me Even though I was free

And they put me back into a prison of their making

Oh Billie, Billie Watts, can you tell us what time you've got

For your time is running out and you must get going

It is 1829 and they've convicted me of another crime

This time a death sentence was pronounced upon me

So they put me on a government ship, and it set off on its trip

All the way across the seas to Cypress

But we were convicts born free and so we had to mutiny 

And fought for control of the ship and from our penalty

Oh Billie, Billie Watts, can you tell us what time you've got

For your crime of stealing two pigeons and a piece of cloth

Aboard we fought our captors, overwhelmed their capture

And in my Christian heart I could not harm them

For living is a trial and we must not live in denial

Of our true natures of brotherhood to all men

Instead we set them free on an island in the sea

And we set off on our pirate life to New Zealand

Oh Billie, Billie Watts, can you tell us what time you've got

And how you turned the other cheek and lived as a freeman

We journeyed round the South Sea to China, Tonga and Japan 

And lived our merry lives as a pirate and a freeman

Smoked many pipes, read my bible every night

And kept in my heart my homeland

Oh Billie, Billie Watts, can you tell us what time you've got

And how you made it back to your homeland

After such an exciting life, I missed my country's life

And I wanted no more the sea's adventure

So we returned to London docks and in the Thames were put in stocks

And I was tried for piracy like a traitor

But I never harmed my jailors and nor to my faith was a betrayer

But believing in doing unto others what you would have done unto you

Yet the law of England is final and I was executed from a high nail

They hung my body from London bridge as a pirate

In the city of the big smoke, I was a pipe smoking bloke

Who sang his last tune as the last pirate to swing

Oh Billie, Billie Watts now we know what time you've got

You've run out out and now your bell has tolled

Yours is a tragic story, but still one of hope and glory

And life of a strong heart and spirit never sold