This song is a sailor's farewell to Liverpool, the great Mersey seaport that saw most of the trade between the United Kingdom and the Americas. Among the many familiar American clippers that could be seen in the harbors was the David Crockett mentioned in this song.
The history of the David Crockett can be seen in American Clipper Ships, 1833-1858 (Howe and Matthews, 1926) or The Clipper Ship Era (Clark, 1910). For instance, she first arrived in Liverpool in 1863 under the command of Captain John A. Burgess, Massachusetts. Burgess was lost overboard in a South Atlantic storm during what was to have been his final voyage before retirement, 1874.