Leave Her, Johnny

Chanteying Aboard American Ships by Frederick Pease Harlow (1962, p. 100):

Oh, pump her out from down below
Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her
Oh, pump her out and away we’ll go
For it’s time for us to leave her

Oh, the times are hard and the ship is old
And the water’s six feet in her hold
The starboard pump is like the crew
It’s all worn out and will not do

They made us pump all night and day
And we half dead had naught to say

The winds were foul, the sea was high
We shipped them all and none went by

She’d neither steer, nor stay or wear
And so us sailors learned to swear

We swore by note for want of more
But now we’re through we’ll go ashore

We’ll pump her out, our best we’ll try
But we can never suck her dry

The rats have gone and we, the crew
It’s time by God that we went too

Roud 8234. As published in Chanteying Aboard American Ships by Frederick Pease Harlow (1962, p. 58-59):

I wish I was in London Town
Amelia, where’re you bound to?
That highway I’d cruse round and round
Across the western ocean

And now we’ve arrived in London Town
Our sails are furled and the docks swept down

The mate’s ashore and all the crew
Now what shall we poor sailors do?

We’ll do as we have done before
We’ll spend our money and work for more

We’ll spend our money at the Dog and Bell
If we don’t keep sober, we’ll all go to hell

The Rocky Mountains is my home
Far away from sea and foam

Harlow notes that this shanty was very popular on ships sailing from New York to London.

Some recordings feature this chorus:

Amelia, where’re you bound for
Amelia where’re you bound for
The Rocky Mountains are my home
Across the western ocean