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;