Les copains d'abord [English translation]

No, this boat was no wicked raft

Of the Medusa, that black craft

Let it be known in all the ports

Let it be known

She sailed like the Père Peinard

Tranquilly on the grand duck pond

And called herself the Comrades Aboard

The Comrades Aboard

Her fluctuat nec mergitur

Was no literary yarn

Whatever spellbinders believe

May have you believe

Her captain and seaworthy men

Were not the sons of ruffians

But bona fide friends of free port

First comrades aboard

’Twere no friends of luxuriant means

No pampered Castor and Pollux

Nor folks of Sodom and Gomorrah

Sodom and Gomorrah

’Twas neither a group of friends picked

By Montaigne and La Boetie

They tapped each other heartily on the belly

The comrades aboard

They were no angels either

Of the Gospels, they'd not read a line

But they all loved each other well,

It showed in the sails

John, Peter, Paul and company

Was their only litany

Their Credo, their Confiteor

The comrades aboard

The smallest shot from Trafalgar

And it was friendship at the helm

It was friendship that pointed north

That pointed them north

And when they were in some distress

Their arms would wave an S.O.S.

You'd have taken them for semaphores

The comrades aboard

At their reunions of close chums

There wasn’t often a no show

If one was missing on board

It’s because he was dead

Yes, but never ever

Will they close the books on his watery grave

One hundred years after the rascal’s fate

He will still be missed

I’ve sailed with many a ship before

But the only one that’s held firm

The one that's always held her course

Always held her course

Sailed like the Père Peinard

In all tranquillity on the grand duck pond

And called herself the Comrades Aboard

The Comrades Aboard