"The Unheard Voices"

by David Townsend (2002)

We are ready for our Court Martial,
The times have long since past.
To answer to the Admiralty we're not partial,
And face our Captain long at last.

We were Loyalist, we were mutineers, we were the undecided,
We are the voices that have not been heard.
We never came back wend where we resided,
To share our joys, our sorrows, our visions blurred.

We died in Tahiti far from our home,
Laid to rest on a foreign soil.
We died on board Bounty, her decks no more to roam,
To keep her trim, no more will we toil.

We died on board Pandora,
As she was going down.
Give a message to my wife, Lenora,
Stay safe my sweet, I'll not be around.

In Batavia, we died
Look how far we had come.
Home, just a little farther on, I tried,
I'll miss my wife, my daughter, my son.

We died on Pitcairn,
And watched our Bounty burn.
Over causes we were not shairn',
Our future sealed, our fates took a turn.

We knew on the outward bound,
The risk that we would take.
Thinking our future sound,
To cheat death, we would not hesitate.

We are tired and restless,
And we want to go home.
Our souls annexed and clueless,
Restricted as within a dome.

We raise up as one voice,
Our Court Martial we demand!
For death here, where we are was not our choice,
This we say to every last man!

So be fair then and just with our fates,
After our court martial we all shall rest.
Kindly bundled, our souls await,
On a word, on a wave, on the next crest.