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