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Home  »  The American National Song-Book  »  J. S. Jones

William McCarty, comp. The American National Song Book. 1842.

A Yankee Ship and a Yankee Crew

J. S. Jones

A YANKEE ship and a Yankee crew,

Tally hi ho, you know;

O’er the bright blue waves like a sea-bird flew;

Sing hey aloft and alow.

Her wings are spread to the fairy breeze,

The sparkling spray is thrown from her prow;

Her flag is the proudest that floats on the seas,

Her homeward way she’s steering now.

A Yankee ship and a Yankee crew,

Tally hi ho, you know;

O’er the bright blue waves like a sea-bird flew;

Sing hey aloft and alow.

A Yankee ship and a Yankee crew,

Tally hi ho, you know;

With hearts on board both gallant and true,

The same aloft and alow,

The blacken’d sky and the whistling wind,

Foretell the quick approach of the gale;

A home and its joys flit o’er each mind

Husbands! lovers! “on deck there,” a sail.

A Yankee ship and a Yankee crew,

Tally hi ho, you know:

Distress is the word,—God speed them through;

Bear a hand, aloft and alow.

A Yankee ship and a Yankee crew,

Tally hi ho, you know;

The boats all clear, the wreck we now view,

“All hands” aloft and alow.

A ship is his throne, the sea his world,

He ne’er sheers from a shipmate distressed;

All’s well—the reef’d sails again are unfurl’d,

O’er the swell he is cradled to rest.

A Yankee ship and a Yankee crew,

Tally hi ho, you know;

Storm past, drink to “wives and sweethearts” too,

All hands! aloft and alow.

A Yankee ship and a Yankee crew,

Tally hi ho, you know,

Freedom defends, and the land where it grew—

We’re free—aloft and alow.

Bearing down is a foe in regal pride,

Defiance floating at each mast head;

One’s a wreck—and she bears that floats alongside

The stars and stripes, to victory wed.

For a Yankee ship and a Yankee crew,

Tally hi ho, you know,

Ne’er strikes to a foe while the sky is blue,

Or a tar’s aloft or alow.