"We picked her up one morning homeward bound from Portland, Maine,
In a nine-knot grunting cargo tramp, by name the Crown o' Spain;
The day was breaking cold and dark and dirty as could be,
It was blowin' up for weather as we couldn't help but see.
Her crew was gone the Lord knows where—and Fritz had left her too;
He must have took a scare and quit afore his job was through;
We tried to pass a hawser, but it warn't no kind o' good,
So we put a salvage crew aboard to save her if we could....
"Bringin' home the Rio Grande and her freight as well,
Half-a-score of steamboatmen cursin' her like hell,