A sunless year Part 1

 Twas in the year of 1816, 

the darkest year that had ever been

The sun never shone in the sky

And all of my dreams, 

like shadows in the streams

Flew away like the birdies that fly

It was a sunless year

And Billie was a piper lad

Making pipes but smoking sad

The volcano blew the greyest rings

Around the sun that spring

He walked the Fosseway

But crops had died off 

No green, but only grey

It was a sunless year

He lost his job sent on his way

He began to rob to reach end of day

Intact, but broken like the clay

Of pipes in Oakhill's gardens

Then one day they caught him stealin'

And the Law was hard as iron feelin'

It was a sunless year

He was sent Van Diemen's land

Where they ruled with iron hand

And the chain gangs marched the roads

Like in hell of the damned souls

And though he was burnt by the sun

He was now a man on the run

It was a sunless year 

Escaped convicts don't last long 

But he was tough and he was strong

So he survived only for the law to trap him

This time they gave him 200 lashes

Then back in chains he was fastened

It was a sunless year

 

But time it passed

As cloud ships above him

And he met a wife with children

Helped to care and bear the burden

But soon the pull was strong upon him

The pull towards his freedom

The chance it came when he sold some whisky

Outlawed for Van Diemen's territory

And chased out of town again

His path could only have one end

The canary man had flown his cage

One too many times law's patience

If it could be called turned to rage

And upon a prison ship he was chained

This ship the Cyprus was to carry him 

From Research Bay to Macquarie Harbour

A renowned cruel colony for the hardened

Criminal fraternity deemed beyond redemption

Here there really would be no hope

To save him from the end of a rope

So like any sane men condemned to die

They tried their luck so they might fly

The deadly jaws of death

And overcoming drunken guards

the convicts seized the Cyprus hard

Mutinied and marooned the crew upon the island

For this crime they were well renowned

In papers over Australian towns

And news of course reached the British dominions

So that a Her Majesty's Royal Navy hunted them

And yet these convicts turned pirates

Managed to evade capture through the skills of their leader

Who had escaped many times before

And been saved by his naval skills succour