The Cruel Princess

"There she swings, an empty hulk, not a soul below now,  
Number seven starboard mess misses Jack and Joe now."  
Echoed from the ghosts on the sea floor,  
Walking through the wreckage of a ship now, nevermore.  

Once the mightiest of sea vessels,  
And partook in the mightiest of sea battles,  
But now overrun with barnacles, seaweed, and kelp,  
And plundered by merfolk, a ship beyond help.  
 
Amongst the rotting wood, half buried in the sand,  
Glimmers a doubloon, from a treasure once grand,  
Caught by a rare ray of sunlight,  
That it hasn't seen since that fateful night.  
 
When the tide goes out,  
Sometimes you can see a sail beam, tall and stout,  
And the name, The Cruel Princess,  
Now trapped forever in the sea's darkness.  
 
The vessel would travel across that bay,  
Nearly every fortnight, and day,  
Until that fateful day,  
When off it's course, the wind blew it astray,  
And the waves carried it away.  
 
Early gales blew in that night,  
Putting them in a position, tight.  
The ship hit a reef,  
And to their disbelief,  
 
They went down,  
The ship went so fast, they had no time but to drown,  
At the far end of the bay,  
Amongst sharp rocks and reefs that day.  
 
The crew and their loot, were lost at sea,  
Where they had once been free,  
To plunder,  
And freely wander.  
 
So thick was the fog that night,  
That they couldn't see the lighthouse light,  
On that moonless night,  
The lack of light,  
Induced a great fright.  
 
Now, all that remains,  
Trapped, deep in the ocean's domains,  
Amongst a kelp forest,  
The vessel's eternal rest.  
 
The wood, slowly disintegrating to oblivion,  
The treasure of coins, and jewels, including obsidian,  
Almost all, pillaged by the merfolk,  
The spirits of the drowned, they did envoke.  
 
From the land of the living they've been forcefully unyoked,  
Their bodies, the home of epitokes,  
Home to pelagic species,  
Some of which are still unknown mysteries.  
 
A ship at the bottom of the sea,  
Where it was fated to be,  
Down where no one can see,  
Where the dead are trapped, but from their bodies, free.