"Bringin' home the Rio Grande and her freight as well,

Half-a-score of steamboatmen cursin' her like hell,

Flounderin' in the flooded waist, scramblin' for a hold,

Hangin' on by teeth and toes, dippin' when she rolled;

Ginger Dan the donkeyman, Joe the 'doctor's' mate,

Lumpers off the water-front, greasers from the Plate,

That's the sort o' crowd we had to reef and steer and haul,

Bringin' home the Rio Grande—ship and freight and all.

"Our mate had served his time in sail, he was a bully boy,

It'd wake a corpse to hear him hail 'Foretopsail yard ahoy!'

He knew the ways o' squaresail and he knew the way to swear,

He'd got the habit of it here and there and everywhere;

He'd some samples from the Baltic and some more from Mozambique;

Chinook and Chink and double-Dutch and Mexican and Greek;

He'd a word or two in Russian, but he learned the best he'd got

Off a pious preachin' skipper—and he had to use the lot....

"Bringin' home the Rio Grande in a seven-days' gale,

Seven days and seven nights, the same as JONAH'S whale,

Standard compass gone to bits, steering all adrift,

Courses split and mainmast sprung, cargo on the shift ...

Not a chart in all the ship left to steer her by,

Not a glimpse of star or sun in the bloomin' sky ...

Two men at the jury wheel, kickin' like a mule,

Bringin' home the Rio Grande up to Liverpool.

"The seventh day off South Stack Light the sun began to shine;

Up come an Admiralty tug and offered us a line;

The mate he took the megaphone and leaned across the rail,

And this or something like it was the answer to her hail:

He'd take it very kindly if they'd tell us where we were,

And he hoped the War was going well, he'd got a brother there,

And he'd thought about their offer and he thanked them kindly too,

But since we'd brought her up so far, by God we'd see it through....

"Bringin' home the Rio Grande (and we done it too),

Courses split and mainmast sprung—half a watch for crew—

Bringin' home the Rio Grande and her freight as well,

Half-a-score of steamboatmen cursing her like hell—

Her as led the grain fleet home back in ninety-eight,

Ninety days to Carrick Roads from the Golden Gate—

Half-a-score of steamboatmen to steer and reef and haul,

Bringin' home the Rio Grande—ship and freight and all."

C.F.S.