This is #45 in Best Loved American Folk Songs (Folk Song U.S.A.), by John & Alan Lomax (1947), page 146-147.


THE E-RI-E

We were forty miles from Albany,
Forget it, I never shall,
What a terrible storm we had one night
On the E-RI-E Canal

We were loaded down with barley,
We were chock-up full of rye;
And the Captain he looked down on me
With a gol-durn wicked eye.

CHORUS
O the E-RI-E was a-risin'
And the gin was a-gittin' low,
And I scarcely think we'll get a drink
Till we get to Buffalo-o-o
Till we get to Buffalo

Two days out from Syracuse
The vessel struck a shoal
And we like to all been foundered
On a chunk o' Lackawanna coal.

We hollered to the captain
On the towpath, treadin' dirt
He jumped on board and stopped the leak
With his old red flannel shirt.

CHORUS

The cook she was a kind old soul,
She had a ragged dress,
We heisted her upon a pole
As a signal of distress.

The winds began to whistle
And the waves began to roll
And we had to reef our royals
On the raging Canawl

CHORUS

When we got to Syracuse
The off-mule he was dead
The nigh mule got blind staggers
And we cracked him on the head

The captain, he got married,
The cook, she went to jail
And I'm the only son-of-a-gun
That's left to tell the tale.

CHORUS

(It is customary to sing the chorus every other stanza)

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I checked the New American Songster, by Charles W. Darling (1992). It has a version of the song from the recording Frontier Ballads (Folkways FP 5003). It's the same as this Lomax version, except that "the cook she was a grand old gal." Pete Seeger's American Favorite Ballads (Oak, 1961), page 87; and Silber & Silber's Folksinger's Wordbook, page 43, have the same version as Darling.