Don't confuse us for no sailors
We don't dress in pretty whites
We're engineers through and through
And we don't need no damn sunlight
The props keep spinnin' all day long
Thanks to what we do down below
There's no room for poster boys
Down here in this fiery hole
We shovel coal all day here in the belly of this flying man o' war
The Captain doesn't know our names, but without us he won't be getting far
If the fires ain't fed and the pressure don't rise the cannons ain't worth a horse's ass
All that glory off the bow rides on the backs of boiler snipes, third class
We love these boilers like a mother
Loves her misbehaving lad
Don't trust 'em when they're running right
And smack 'em if they're acting bad
We fly the world end to end
But our only view is fire and steel
We keep the steam building up
So we don't scratch our precious keel
We shovel coal all day here in the belly of this flying man o' war
The Captain doesn't know our names, but without us he won't be getting far
If the fires ain't fed and the pressure don't rise the cannons ain't worth a horse's ass
All that glory off the bow rides on the backs of boiler snipes, third class
We're not rats in a cellar
Despite what the Captain believes
If he doesn't think to treat us right
We've got some tricks up our sleeves.
Cut our food, we'll chop the speed
Cut our leave, we'll foul the screws
Cut our pay, we'll snuff the boilers
It's a battle he's sure to lose
We shovel coal all day here in the belly of this flying man o' war
The Captain doesn't know our names, but without us he won't be getting far
If the fires ain't fed and the pressure don't rise the cannons ain't worth a horse's ass
All that glory off the bow rides on the backs of boiler snipes, third class