The boatmen shout, 'tis time to part, No longer can we stay; 'Twas then Mimuna taught my heart How much a glance can say, 'Twas then Mimuna taught my heart How much a glance can say. With trembling steps to me she came, Farewell, she would have cried; But ere her lips the words could frame, In half-formed sounds it died. Through tear-dimm'd eyes beamed looks of love, Her arms she round me flung; As clings the breeze on sighing grove Upon my breast she hung. My willing arms embraced the maid, My heart with rapture beat, While she but wept the more and said, "Would we had never met!"

According to Whall (Sea Songs and Shanties), this was an American favorite up until the 1900s — though it doesn’t appear in many other collections.

The tune was sung to an old German air, “The Mill Wheel”.