"Ben Backstay", a sailor with a wooden leg. Lithograph by W.H. Holbrooke, 183-.

Ben Backstay, a character in a song who gets drunk, falls overboard, and is killed by a shark. The present print assumes that he lost a leg to the shark instead. He is standing on a seashore holding a barrel. Beyond, ships at anchor

Ben Backstay, a character in a sea shanty. "Ben Backstay was our boatswain, A very merry boy, / For no one half so merrily Could pipe all hands ahoy / And when unto his summons We did not well attend / No lad than he more cheerily Could handle the ropes end / Singing chip chow cherry chow Fol de riddle ido / Singing chip chow cherry chow Fol de riddle ido / While sailing once our Captain Who was a jolly dog / Served out to all our company A double share of grog / Ben Backstay he got tipsy, All to his hearts content / And he being half seas over, Why overboard he went / A shark was on the larboard bow, Sharks don't on manners stand / But grapple all they come near Just like your sharks on land. / We heaved Ben out some tackling Of saving him some hope's, / but the shark had bit his head off So he couldn't see the ropes / Without his head his ghost appeared All on the briny lake, / He piped all hands ahoy and cried "Lads warning by me take! / By drinking grog I lost my life, So lest my fate you meet, / Why never mix your liquors, lads, But always take them neat!""

[Dublin?] : [William Henry Holbrooke?], [between 1830 and 1839?]

1 print : lithograph ; image and border 14.5 x 11.3 cm

Ben Backstay. Designed & on stone by W.H. Holbrooke

Wellcome Collection 2008271i