Ah, for just one time
I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin
Reaching for the Beaufort Sea

Tracing one warm line
Through a land so wild and savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea

Westward from the Davis Strait
'Tis there 'twas said to lie
The sea route to the Orient
For which so many died

Seeking gold and glory,
Leaving weathered, broken bones
And a long-forgotten lonely cairn of stones

Chorus

Three centuries thereafter
I take passage overland
In the footsteps of brave Kelso
Where his "sea of flowers" began

Watching cities rise before me
Then behind me sink again
This tardiest explorer driving hard across the plain

Chorus

And through the night, behind the wheel
The mileage clicking west
I think upon Mackenzie,
David Thompson and the rest

Who cracked the mountain ramparts
And did show a path for me
To race the roaring Fraser to the sea

Chorus

How then am I so different
From the first men through this way?
Like them, I left a settled life
I threw it all away

To seek a Northwest Passage
At the call of many men
To find there but the road back home again

Chorus

It's of a flash packet, a packet of fame,
She belongs to New York and Dom Pedro's her name,
She's rammed up and jammed up on deck and below,
We're bound for Shanghai in the Dom Ped-er-o,

Ch: Singing down, down, down derry down!

Now the pilot came down and these words he did say,
"Get ready, me boys, the ship's going away."
We braced up our yards and we gave her the slip,
And it's down Boston harbor that packet did rip.

Oh, it's now we are sailing down off of Cape Cod,
Where many a hard flashy packet has trod;
The wind it breezed up and the water did boil,
And at eight bells that night we clewed up our main royal.

And now we are sailing down on to the Line;
We catched all the rain-water, we had plenty of time;
We filled up our casks, as you now plainly see,
And then shaped our course for the port of Shanghai.

Now the captain is aft and he's reading a book;
He'll come for'ard bimeby and he'll growl at the cook;
He will lift up his eyes to the blessings of God
Over a plate of boiled rice and some rusty salt cod.

It's now we're arrived in the port of Shanghai;
We'll go ashore, shipmates, strange faces to see.
We'll lay up aloft and we'll furl all our sails,
Excepting the spanker that hangs in the brails.

Now our cargoʻs discharged and we are taking in;
We're expecting to go back to Boston ag'in;
And when we get there so jolly we'll be,
We'll be twenty merry sports all the way from Shanghai.

C'est en passant sur l'pont d'Morlaix,
Ch: Haul away! Old fellow, away!
La belle Hélène, j'ai rencontrée ,
Ch: Haul away! Old fellow, away!

Bien humblement j'l'ai saluée,
D'un doux sourire ell'm'a remercié.

Mais j'ai bien vu qu'c'est charité,
Car c'est une dame de qualité.

C'est la fille d'un cap'taine nantais,
Un matelot ne s'ra jamais.

Pour nouse sont kles garces des quais
Qui vol'nt, qui mentent, qui font tuer!

J'n'étale plus, j'vas tout larguer,
J'vas faire mon trou dans la salée.

Mat'lots, mon coeur est embrumé,
Buvons quand même a sa beauté.

Encore un coup pour étarquer,
Hisse le grand foc! Tout est payé!