From Mrs Elizabeth Cronin, Macroom, Co. Cork
Once I was a waiting man who lived at home at ease
Now I am a mariner that ploughs the stormy seas
I always loved seafaring life I bid my love adieu
I shipped as steward and cook me boys on board the kangaroo
I never thought she would prove false or either prove untrue
As we sailed away from Milford Bay on board the Kangaroo
Think of me oh think of me she mournfully did say
When you are in a foreign land and I am far away
And take this lucky thrupenny bit it will make you bear in mind
This loving trusting faithful heart you left in tears behind
Cheer up, cheer up my own true love don’t weep so bitterly
She sobbed she sighed she choked she cried till she could not say goodbye
I won’t be gone for very long but for a month or two
And when I return again of course I’ll visit you
Our ship it was homeward bound from manys the foreign shore
Manys the foreign present unto my love I bore
I brought tortoises from Tenerife and ties from Timbuktu
A China rat, a Bengal cat and a Bombay cockatoo
Paid off I sought her dwelling on a street above the town
Where an ancient dame upon the line was hanging out her gown
Where is my love? she’s vanished sir about six months ago
With a smart young man who drives the van for Chaplin Son & Co.
Here’s a health to dreams of married life to soap suds and blue
Heart’s true love, patent starch and washing soda too
Ill go into some foreign shore no longer can I stay
With some China Hottentot I’ll throw my life away
My love she was no foolish girl her age it was two score
My love she was no spinster she’d been married twice before
I cannot say it was her wealth that stole my heart away
She was a washer in the laundry for one and nine a day