Fare Thee Well (song) - Mainsail Café

This very popular shanty was often the homeward-bound song aboard ships leaving the nitrate ports of the Chilean coast. In The Shanty Book, Terry explains that the song was so beloved that one never heard a sailor add a coarse verse.

It was traditionally sung when hoisting anchor for the voyage home. A ship await charter in a foreign harbor for weeks before the order to set sail finally came. After the charter was arranged and cargo was stored, hatches were put on, battened down, and covered with tarpaulins; the ship was washed down; sails were bent and the riggings were overhauled. As the shantyman led the crew at the capstan to raise the anchor, cheering rang out from the other vessels in port, sending the homeward-bound sailors on their way.

The earliest written record dates to the logs of The Minerva, in the 1840s.

Oh, don't you hear the Old Man say
Ch: Goodbye fare-ye-well, goodbye fare-ye well
Oh, don't you hear the Old Man say
Ch: Hooraw, me boys, we're homeward bound!

We're homeward bound to Liverpool town,
Where them judies they will come down.

And when we gets to the Wallasea Gates,
Sally and Polly for their flash men do wait.

And one to the other ye'll hear them say,
Here comes Johnny with fourteen months pay.

Them girls there on Lime Street we soon hope to meet,
Soon we'll be rollin' both sides of the street.

We'll meet these fly gals and we'll ring the ol' bell,
With them judies we'll meet there we'll raise merry hell.

I'll tell me old mammy when I gets back home,
The girls there on Lime Street won't leave me alone.

We're homeward bound to the gals o' the town.
Stamp up me bullies an' heave it around.

And when we gets home, boys, oh won't we fly 'round,
We'll heave up the anchor to this bully sound.

We're a fine flashy packet and bound for to go,
With the gals on the towrope we cannot say no!

We're all homeward bound for the old backyard,
Then heave, me bullies, we're all bound homeward.

I wrote to my Kitty, she says she is well,
She rooms at the Astor and dines at the Bell.

Heave with a will, boys, oh heave good and strong,
Sing a good chorus for 'tis a good song.

We're homeward bound, we'll have ye to know,
And over the water to England must go.

From Songs of the Sea by Stan Hugill (1977)

O fare you well, we're homeward bound
Goodbye, fare the well; goodbye, fare the well
We're homeward bound for New York town
Hurrah my boys, we're homeward bound

We're homeward bound, heave up and down,
Oh, heave on the capstan and make it spin round.

Our anchors we'll weigh and our sails we will set;
The friends we are leaving we leave with regret.

Oh, heave with a will and heave long and strong,
And sing a good chorus, for 'tis a good song.

We're homeward bound, you've heard them say,
Then hook on the catfall and run her away.

She's a flash clipper packet and bound for to go;
With the girls on the towrope she can not say no.

We're homeward bound, and the winds they blow fair,
And there'll be many true friends to greet us there.

From Roll and Go by Joanna Carver Colcord (1924)

We're homeward bound to Boston town,
Ch: Goodbye, fare you well, goodbye far you well.
We're homeward bound with sugar and rum
Ch: Hurrah! my boys, we're homeward bound.

Homeward bound, that joyful sound,
We'll heave on the capstan and make it spin round,

Homeward bound, and our sails we will set,
Goodbye to the girls on the pier with regret.

From Songs Of The Sea & Sailors' Chanteys by Robert Frothingham (1924)