The Jolly Roger in Whitstable

The lure of the sea – a glimpse of it from Whitstable Harbour. The flag reminded me of the pirate Black Sam Bellamy, who refused, as he put it, to “to be governed by laws which rich men have made for their own security... They vilify us, the scoundrels do, when there is only this difference, they rob the poor under the cover of law, forsooth, and we plunder the rich under the protection of our own courage.” He called himself a “free prince” and his crew called themselves “Robin Hood’s men”.

They were all destined for Davy Jones’s locker. Their ship, the Whydah Gally – captured from slavers and carrying five tons of looted treasure – sank off Cape Cod in 1717 during a fierce storm. Bellamy was only 28.

But what was the ditty that the sight of that flag and the open sea reminded me of? It took me half the train journey back to London to remember.

I want to be a simple sailor sailing out to sea

...

I want to be a bandit,

Can’t you understand it?

Sailing to sea is life for me,

Is life for me.

Two weeks later, I still can’t get the words out of my head.

Full marks to Lord Robert Vansittart who wrote them, and Sabu who sang them.