I am a member of the council of the naval mutiny  And no traitor to my conscience having done my sworn duty  These are my last words before the scaffold and I charge you all to hear  How a wretched British sailor became a citizen mutineer  Pressed into service to carry powder I was loyal to the crack of the whip  It I starved on the streets of Bristol, I starved worse on a British ship  Red is the colour of the new republic  Blue is the colour of the sea  White is the colour of my innocence  Not surrender to your mercy  I was woken from my misery by the words of Thomas Paine  On my barren soil they fell like the sweetest drops of rain  Red is the colour of the new republic  Blue is the colour of the sea  While is the colour of my innocence  Not surrender to your mercy  So in the spring of the year we took the fleet  Every cask and cannon and compass sheet  And we flew a Jacobean flag to give us heart  While Pitt stood helpless we were waiting for Bonaparte  Red is the colour of the new republic  Blue is the colour of the sea  White is the colour of my innocence  Not surrender to your mercy  All you soldiers, all you sailors, all you labourers of the land  All you beggars, all you builders, all you come here to watch me hang  To the masters we are the rabble, we are the 'swinish multitude'  But we can re-arrange the colours of the red and the white and the blue  Red is the colour of the new republic  Blue is the colour of the sea  White is the colour of my innocence  Not surrender to your mercy  Red is the colour of the new republic  Blue is the colour of the sea  White is the colour of my innocence  Not surrender to your mercy