Farewell My Dear Nancy

Your waist is too slender
Your fingers are too small
I fear they would not answer
Our cable ropes to haul
Where the great guns roar like thunder
And the swift bullets do fly
And the silver trumpets sounding
To drown the dreadful cry

If I should meet some fair maids
All blooming fair and gay
If I should take a fancy
What would my Nancy say
What would I say dear William
Why I would love her too
And I would step one side
While she conversed with you

Oh say not so my Nancy
Your words do break my heart
And you and I'll get married
The night before we part
And so these two got married
And he's sailing o'er the main
May heaven's blessings rest on her
Till he returns again

From Songs the Whalemen Sang, Huntington
Collected from the journal of the Cortes, 1847
Note: A fragment of Banks of the Nile
DT #442
Laws N9
RG