In the Grayworld

LH—

You asked me before about my experiences sailing the unterzee. Here’s a shanty that stuck to mind, on the way back from my first visit to Apis Point. Not much else I remember from that trip, I was too upset about what happened to my face after drinking from that river, you know what, let’s not remember that now.

From London to Gaider’s Mourn, the song is known as “A Little Bite”, though in other places they refer to it as “That Bitey Song.”

The captain was a friendly sort
But we were starving, far from port
And so she went out to the deck
and knifed the gunner through the neck

[CHORUS:]

Singing—

Everything will be all right
I just want a little bite

We went north and we went east
Hunting crab and bat and beast
But when the food was running out
She cut the doctor’s entrails out

[CHORUS]

I’ll never sail to port again
And no one else will hear her when
She comes back down the brig for me
Her smile as red as red can be

[CHORUS]

This is usually sung with a leader (whoever is currently most drunk on deck), with everyone else joining during the chorus. “Everything will be all right!” the leader will yell; “EVERYTHING WILL BE ALL RIGHT!”, everyone else would respond. Similarly - “I just want a little BITE!”, “I JUST WANT A LITTLE BITE.” Towards the end of the song, everyone just repeats “I JUST WANT A LITTLE BITE” over and over, until this naturally truncates into “A LITTLE BITE A LITTLE BITE”, and then “BITE BITE BITE BITE”, until devolving into a series of slobbering, gnawing, licking noises that persist until the zailors remember themselves and nervously suggest a new song.

Just thinking about it has given me a hunger. For rubbery lumps. Maybe.

x
Leknaat

***

Fallen London is © 2015 and ™ Failbetter Games Limited: www.fallenlondon.com. This is an unofficial fan work.