Act I
A rocky seashore on the coast of Cornwall. In the distance is a calm sea, on which a schooner is lying at anchor. As the curtain rises groups of pirates are discovered some drinking, some playing cards. Samuel, the Pirate Lieutenant, is going from one group to another, filling the cups from a flask. Frederic is seated in a despondent attitude at the back of the scene.
All
Pour, oh, pour the pirate sherry; Fill, O fill the pirate glass; And, to make us more than merry, Let the pirate bumper pass. Samuel For today our pirate 'prentice Rises from indenture freed; Strong his arm, and keen his scent is He's a pirate now indeed! All Here's good luck to Frederic's ventures! Frederic's out of his indentures. Samuel Two and twenty, now he's rising, And alone he's fit to fly, Which we're bent on signalizing With unusual revelry. All Here's good luck to Frederic's ventures! Frederic's out of his indentures.
Pour, oh, pour the pirate sherry; Fill, O fill the pirate glass; And, to make us more than merry, Let the pirate bumper pass.
Frederic rises and comes forward with Pirate King, who enters. Pirate King Yes, Frederic, from to-day you rank as a full-blown member of our band. All Hurrah! Frederic My friends, I thank you all, from my heart, for your kindly wishes. Would that I could repay them as they deserve! Pirate King What do you mean? Frederic To-day I am out of my indentures, and to-day I leave you for ever. Pirate King But this is quite unaccountable; a keener hand at scuttling a Cunarder or cutting out a P. & O. never shipped a handspike. Frederic Yes, I have done my best for you. And why? It was my duty under my indentures, and I am the slave of duty. As a child I was regularly apprenticed to your band. It was through an error -- no matter, the mistake was ours, not yours, and I was in honour bound by it. Samuel An error? What error? Frederic I may not tell you; it would reflect upon my well-loved Ruth.
Ruth rises and comes forward.
Ruth
Nay, dear master, my mind has long been gnawed by the cankering tooth of mystery. Better have it out at once.
Ruth sings
Ruth
When Frederic was a little lad he proved so brave and daring, His father thought he'd 'prentice him to some career seafaring. I was, alas! his nurserymaid, and so it fell to my lot To take and bind the promising boy apprentice to a pilot A life not bad for a hardy lad, though surely not a high lot, Though I'm a nurse, you might do worse than make your boy a pilot.
I was a stupid nurserymaid, on breakers always steering, And I did not catch the word aright, through being hard of hearing; Mistaking my instructions, which within my brain did gyrate, I took and bound this promising boy apprentice to a pirate. A sad mistake it was to make and doom him to a vile lot. I bound him to a pirate — you — instead of to a pilot.
I soon found out, beyond all doubt, the scope of this disaster, But I hadn't the face to return to my place, and break it to my master. A nurserymaid is not afraid of what you people call work, So I made up my mind to go as a kind of piratical maid-of-all-work. And that is how you find me now, a member of your shy lot, Which you wouldn't have found, had he been bound apprentice to a pilot.