The Erie

We were forty miles from Albany,

Forget it I never shall:

What a terrible storm we had that night,

On the E-ri-e Canal.

Refrains:

Oh the E-ri-e was a-rising,

And the gin was getting low,

And I scarecely think we'll get a drink

"til we get to Buffalo,

"till we get to Buffalo.

We were loaded up with barley,

We were chuck up full of rye,

and the captain, helooked down on me,

With his evil wicked eye.

Our captian, he came up on deck

With a spy glass in his hand

And the fog, it was so darned thick,

That he couldn't spy land.

Two days out from Syracuse

The vessel struck a shoal,

And we like to all be foundered

On a chuck o'Lackawanna coal.

We hollered to the captain

On the towpath treadin' dirt

He jumped on board and stopped the leak

With his old red flannel shirt

Our cook, she was a grand old gal

She has a ragged dress

We hoisted her upon the pole

As a signal of distress

The winds began to whistle

the waves began to roll

And we had to reef our royals

On the raging Canal

When we got to Syracuse

The off-mule he was dead

The nigh mule got blind staggers

And we cracked him on the head

Oh, the girls are in the Police Gazette

The crew are all in jail

And I'm the only living sea cook's son

That's left to tell the tale