I've sailed among the Yankees, the Spaniards and Chinese. I've lain down with the yellow girls beneath the tall palm trees. I've crossed the Line and Gulf Stream, and around by Table Bay, And around Cape Horn and home again - oh, that's the sailor's way! Oh, Bobby'll go to his darling, and Johnny'll go to his dear, And Mike will go to his wife and fam'ly, and Andrew for pipe and beer; But I'll go to the dance hall to hear the music play, For around Cape Horn and home again, oh, that is the sailor's way!

Doerflinger (Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman) took down this song from Frank Vickery, of the Avon Queen, who used the same tune in Go to Sea No More. “Mr. Vickery said there were many more stanzas.” A few lines are quoted in Bill Adams’s Ships and Women, 1936.

Table Bay is the harbor of Cape Town, South Africa. The Line is the Equator, and a ceremony was often held for a sailor’s first crossing.