C                                 G
The sheets were frozen hard, and they cut the naked hand;
    C                                F
The decks were like a slide, where a seaman scarce could stand;
    Am                             C
The wind was a nor'wester, blowing squally off the sea;
    Am                                    G
And cliffs and spouting breakers were the only things a-lee

[Verse]
     C                        G
They heard the surf a-roaring before the break of day;
     C                                   F
But 'twas only with the peep of light we saw how ill we lay
   Am                         C
We tumbled every hand on deck instanter, with a shout
       Am                                 G
And we gave her the maintops'l, and stood by to go about

[Verse]
    C                                    G
All day we tacked and tacked between the South Head and the North;
    C                                    F
All day we hauled the frozen sheets, and got no further forth;
    Am                         C
All day as cold as charity, in bitter pain and dread
    Am                      G
For very life and nature we tacked from head to head

[Verse]
   C                                 G
We gave the South a wider berth, for there the tide-race roared;
    C                                 F
But every tack we made we brought the North Head close aboard:
   Am                                 C
We saw the cliffs and houses, and the breakers running high
        Am                                 G
And the coastguard in his garden, with his glass against his eye

[Verse]
    C                                 G
The frost was on the village roofs as white as ocean foam;
    C                                     F
The good red fires were burning bright in every 'long-shore home;
    Am                              C
The windows sparkled clear, and the chimneys volleyed out;
      Am                                 G
And I vow we sniffed the victuals as the vessel went about

[Verse]
    C                                      G
The bells upon the church were rung with a mighty jovial cheer;
         C                                     F
For it's just that I should tell you how, of all days in the year,
     Am                       C
This day of our adversity was blessed Christmas morn
        Am                                   G
And the house above the coastguard's was the house where I was born

[Verse]
  C                                 G
O well I saw the pleasant room, the pleasant faces there
   C                              F
My mother's silver spectacles, my father's silver hair;
    Am                               C
And well I saw the firelight, like a flight of homely elves
   Am                                  G
Go dancing round the china-plates that stand upon the shelves

[Verse]
    C                                  G
And well I knew the talk they had, the talk that was of me
       C                               F
Of the shadow on the household and the son that went to sea;
    Am                             C
And O the wicked fool I seemed, in every kind of way
      Am                               G
To be here and hauling frozen ropes on blessed Christmas Day

[Verse]
     C                               G
They lit the high sea-light, and the dark began to fall
     C                                   F
"All hands to loose topgallant sails," I heard the captain call
    Am                                C
"By Lord, she'll never stand it," our first mate Jackson, cried
      Am                         G
"It's one way or the other, Mr. Jackson," he replied

[Verse]
    C                                  G
She staggered to her bearings, but the sails were new and good
        C                                 F
And the ship smelt up to windward just as though she understood
       Am                              C
As the winter's day was ending, in the entry of the night
   Am                              G
We cleared the weary headland, and passed below the light

[Verse]
    C                                  G
And they heaved a mighty breath, every soul on board but me
   C                                F
As they saw her nose again pointing handsome out to sea;
    Am                                C
But all that I could think of, in the darkness and the cold
    Am                                  G
Was just that I was leaving home and my folks were growing old