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Mainsail Café / Songs / The Leaving of Liverpool

The Leaving of Liverpool

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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.

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Fare you well, the Prince's Landing Stage,
River Mersey, fare you well.
I'm off to California,
A place I know right well.

So fare you well, my own true love,
When I return united we will be.
It's not the leaving of Liverpool that grieves me,
But me darling, when I think on you.

I'm off to California,
By the way of the stormy Cape Horn,
And I will send to you a letter, love,
When I am homeward bound.

Farewell to Lover Frederick Street,
Anson Terrace and Park Lane;
Farewell, it will be some long time
Before I see you again.

I've shipped on a Yankee clipper ship,
Davy Crockett is her name;
And Burgess is the captain of her,
And they say she's a floating hell.

It's my second trip with Burgess in the Crockett,
And I think I know him sell.
If a man's a sailor, he can get along,
But if not, he's sure in hell.

The tug is waiting at the pierhead
To take us down the stream.
Our sails are loose and our anchor secure,
So I'll bid you good-bye once more.

I'm bound away to leave you,
Goodbye, my love, good-bye.
There ain't but one thing that grieves me;
That's leaving you behind.

Now, fare you well, the Prince's Landing Stage,
River Mersey, fare you well.
I'm off to California,
A place I know right well.

From Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman by William Main Doerflinger (1951, '72, '91)

Metadata

Roud Index: 9435
DT Index: 3538, 3540, 9846
Forecastle song
English

Selected recordings:

Victory Sings At Sea Various artists
Sailors, Ships & Chanteys Louis Killen

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