And the shipowning folks are groaning.
Three shipowners sat in their wild despair,
By East or by West they were all done brown!
For the Fossils had ruined the trade once so fair;
And the foreigners cut in to put the freights down.
But men must work and women must weep;
’Tis hard to do else when there’s nothing to eat,
While the Fossils go on droning.
Three ships were laid up in the stream hard by;
And the crews were discharged ere the sun went down;