The Inchcape Rock under the ocean was a perilous rock that had led to many shipwrecks and loss of lives. Crew members had often lost their way in stormy weather or in the dark and hit the rock to finally hear their death knell.

But people were relieved when the good old Abbot of Aberbrothok had placed on the Inchcape Rock a bell which would float and swing and ring a warning in times of high waves. This bell saved many a lives and so the mariners praised and blessed the Abbot for his extraordinary deed.

But this reputation of the Abbot was something Ralph the Rover, a sea-pirate was jealous of. Moreover, his business of looting the ships in danger was taking a hit for the Inchcape Bell. So he cut the bell from the rock one day.

Now the Rover has grown rich with ‘plundered store’. One day when he was sailing to the Scotland shore, his boat fell pray to the bad weather and lost the way. They hit the dreaded Inchcape Rock and met death in the end. The villain got punished for his own deed.

(Here is the full explanation of the poem.)