Meuterei translates directly to "mutiny". It's a dramatic and evocative word that immediately brings to mind images of rebellion and conflict on the high seas, perfectly fitting the pirate theme of the song.
In the lyrics, it describes the moment when the pirates, fed up with their captain, engage in a "Meuterei" that leads to more deaths. This word is not only interesting due to its specific context but also quite rare in everyday German, making it memorable and enticing for a learner.
Santiano tell a dark little sea shanty about ten pirates who drink themselves to death, one by one.
Each verse loses a pirate: someone drinks too much rum and gets thrown overboard, someone dies in a fight, someone gets marooned. By the end there is no crew left, and the ship sails on as a ghost ship, still full of rum.
The chorus never changes: joho, joho, joho, and a bottle full of rum. It is a party song built on a grim joke, sung the way old sailor songs always were, cheerful about something terrible.