Didn't find the lyrics anywhere, so here they are.
I'm pretty sure I heard all of these right. Here goes nothing. It starts with the chorus.

As someone pointed out, this is about the wreck of the HMS Orpheus, a royal navy steam-sail ship.

Orpheus

Chorus:
The Orpheus was a proud ship
Sailing the ocean waves
The Orpheus was a doomed ship
Sailing a watery grave

In eighteen hundred and sixty three
she left off Sydney town
Two hundred and fifty men on board
For New Zealand bound
The Tasman sea was smooth and calm
She made her race to run
Until she reached the Manukau bar
And there her race was run

Chorus

Manukau harbor's a haven safe
from the raging storm
But Manukau bar's a treacherous place
Where many fine ships have gone down
The Orpheus tried to take the bar
through the breaking waves
She struck a bank and there stuck fast
And there she ended her days

Chorus

The Orpheus was a modern ship
Powered by steam and sail
But her mighty engines could not save
her from her terrible fate
One boat only was got away
to reach the water blue shore
The steamboat Wonga southward bound
saved a few men more.

Chorus

The poor brave men did refuge seek
On the mainmast hide
The roaring waves broke over them
and swept them all aside
One hundred and eighty nine men were lost
A sad and bitter day
One hundred and eighty nine men were lost
To lie in lonely graves

Chorus