And Molly said when she saw young Ned, "Surely, you're naught but a child.
Your skin is as soft as mine and your voice is sweet and mild."
Neddy blushed for he knew 'twas true, he'd not yet turned fifteen,
But he knew his ship from rudder to sprit and ev'ry spar between.

He could reef a sail from a foremast yard, be it so fierce a blow,
That most of the crew of the Mary Deare stayed safely snug below.
He could reckon a position from the clock and the sun
And near Jamaica he'd even occasion to captain a twelve-pound gun.

Molly laughed in delight as he stammered there, cheeks so brightly red.
"My Nan's sick, so I'll ask Da, can you be my maid instead?"
Molly teased the poor boy but her father heard what she said
And Captain Jake Peake let Molly make a maiden out of Ned.
 

So when they sailed for Baltimore on the rush of the Bristol tide
Twas Nelly Pine as lady’s maid who stood by Molly's side.
The crew of the Mary Deare had a laugh at Ned's expense
And Molly repented of her jest when she saw her new maid wince.

"I'll teach you things about women that none of these tars will ever know."
She whispered, "When this is over and we to our ways go,
You'll have yours back on many a maid, for what you learn
On this voyage will do the man you'll yet become a right good turn."

So Nelly and Molly sailed across the blue seas to Baltimore,
And Nelly learned about women till the Maryland shore.
Yes, Captain Jake gave his blessing to such a cunning plan
For he'd no intention that Nelly should ever again be a man.

"I'll make you a deal, Nelly," said the Captain, "Serve Molly as her maid
Twelve more months, I'll buy you a ship. I promise you'll be paid."
Scarcely above the surf, Jacob Peake sold the Mary Deare,
Settling in with daughter Molly--and her maid, Nelly-for-a-year.
 

Molly continued Nelly's lessons in all things of womankind,
With Jake as father and master, no better you could find.
But Captain Peake had fallen in love with fair Nelly Pine.
"I'll not be happy," he told himself, "til I know she's truly mine."

As for Nell, her duties now were lighter, her days nigh free of care,
Maiding is less work than sailing, and yards more fraught than hair.
But Nelly found herself both lonesome for the open sea,
And worried about the new person she saw herself come to be.

She liked being warm and safe, at home in Baltimore's civil air
She liked the softer living, though she missed the ocean's dare.
And she loved the soft clothing that as a lady’s maid she wore,
But Nell could be seen, often, standing on the strand of Baltimore.

She watched the ship’s in their lading and tracked each dory and tender,
And the sailors watched our Nelly for they never doubted her gender.
Poor Jake Peake grew jealous, as green as the water in Delaware Bay,
And he promised himself to make Nell his bride, one fine Baltimore day.
 

The twelvemonth neared its ending, and Nelly was torn in twain.
She loved the sea, but couldn’t deny, ‘twas she that had been changed.
“I’ll never reef or steer again with these hands so soft and womanish,
But if I can’t go to sea, I’ll cast myself in to be eaten by the bottom fish!”

Now Molly had watched the strange she-change of Neddy into Nell.
And her heart rejoiced for love of her friend and she saw as clear as a bell
The path to Nelly’s contentment, the satisfaction of her love of the ocean
Because she hadn’t been blind to her father’s hopes or deaf to his devotion.

“Marry my father,” she told Nell, “then you can have your ship and serve her,
I’m sure that Jake Peake would let his wife become her own ship’s purser.”
And to her father she said, “You know, da, the time has come, tis now or never,
The twelvemonth’s up, beg Nelly for your wife, and sail your ship together.”

So Nelly Pine became Nelly Peake on the strand of Baltimore
And Jacob swore to love and cherish her alone, forevermore.
They bought back the brigantine Mary Deare and sailed for Bristol Sound
With a cargo of tobacco, timber and tar worth many a silver crown.