It's of a famous American ship, for New York we are bound; Our captain being an Irishman belonging to Dublin town, And when he gazes on that land and that city of high renown, It's break away that green burgee and the Harp without a Crown. It was on the seventeenth of March we arrived in New York Bay. Our captain being an Irishman must cele-ber-ate the day, With the Stars and Stripes high up aloft and fluttering all around, But underneath his monkey-gaff flew the Harp without a Crown. Now we're bound for 'Frisco, boys, and things is runnin' wild. The officers and the sailors all drunk, and I think they are combined. We'll wash her and we'll scrub her down, and we'll work without a frown, For on board of the saucy Shenandoah flies the Harp without a Crown.

According to Joanna Carver Colcord, the Shenandoah was “one of the later medium-sized clippers out of New York” and sailed under Captain “Jim” Murphy. It was his custom to hoist the Irish flag under the American as his private signal.

Note: The Shenandoah does not appear in Howe & Matthews’ American Clipper Ships, 1833-1858, though a Confederate cruiser of the same name (the CSS Shenandoah) is mentioned there. The ship in this song, a merchant vessel on the New York to San Francisco run, may have been a smaller or later vessel not documented in the standard clipper registries.