Now a long goodbye to you, my dear Ch: With a heave-oh haul And a last farewell, and a long farewell Ch: And good morning, ladies, all For we're outward bound to New York Town And you'll wave to us till the sun goes down. And when we get to New York town, Oh it's there we'll drink, and sorrows drown. When we're back once more in London Docks, All the pretty girls will come in flocks. And Poll, and Bet, and Sue will say: "Oh it's here comes Jack with his three years' pay." So a long goodbye to you, my dear, And a last farewell, and a long farewell.

This halyard shanty first appeared in print in Richard Runciman Terry’s The Shanty Book (Part I, 1921), and the words given here are Terry’s. He learned it “from Northumbrian sailors when a very small boy,” and had “never heard of its use in any other than Blyth and Tyne ships.” As far as he knew, the tune had never been printed before. Terry wondered whether it might be a Northumbrian air, but leaned toward the idea that it had been “picked up in more southern latitudes by some Northumbrian seaman.”

Stan Hugill printed a close relative in Shanties From the Seven Seas, learned from West Indian seamen. In his version the ship is “outward bound for Mobile Town,” with the same “heave-o, haul” refrain. Hugill pointed out that “heave” and “haul” together suggest a pumping song, and that it may also have been used by the cotton stowers of Mobile Bay as they worked their jackscrews. The Mobile version, with Kingston in place of Mobile, is the one the crew sings in the 2013 video game Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

Several other shanties end their verses with “good morning, ladies all.” Cecil Sharp printed one in English Folk-Chanteys (1914) as sung by John Short of Watchet, Somerset. It begins “I thought I heard our captain say” and has the refrain “Ha, ha, my yaller girls, good morning, ladies all.” Sharp knew of no variant, but thought its tune had “some affinity” with Heave Away, My Johnny. Hugill’s other version, from a West Indian shantyman, belongs to this same family. Jeff Warner sings John Short’s song on Short Sharp Shanties, Vol. 2 (2011). Short also gave Sharp Roller, Bowler, which ends on the same line.

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