From "Shanteymen & Shantyboys" by William Main Doerflinger. (Snips)

"The first (song)is a sailor's farewell to Liverpool".

Thousands of Yankee shellbacks knew Liverpool well. Many of the Famous American clippers, too, were familiar sights in the Mersey, among the three-skysail-yarder 'David Crockett' of New York, the merchant ship mentioned in this song.

"It was in 1863 that she first arrived in the port (Liverpool) while under the command of Captain John A Burgess of Massachusetts, her skipper for many yrs. In 1874, on what was to have been his last voyage before retiring from sea, Captain Burgess was lost overboard in a storm in the South Atlantic."

Dick Maitland, who sang "The Leaving of Liverpool," learned it about 1885, when he was bosun of the American ship "General Knox". "I was on deck one night", he said, "when I heard a Liverpool man singing it in the fo'c'sle...Yessir, that song hit the spot"!

Seeing as this is a one-source song "that's how it was sung" anything else is a change through the folk process, maybe but in 'Rise Up Singing' they at least should have repeat the printed source rather than what I suspect change the words deliberately to their own flowing tastes.

If Dick heard this coming from the fo'c'sle then it came from a crew member, as passengers weren't even allowed in the fo'c'sle. I've heard Dan Milner sing this many times, his is much like Lou Killen (except I can understand Dan better than Lou). I see no reason to believe this is a song of emigration & as Doeflinger says himself it's a "sailor's farewell".

I put Doerflinger's text here because there's been such wild speculation over the song, it's origin and words. Sing it as you will but here's how it is.

THE LEAVING OF LIVERPOOL

Fare you well, the Prince's Landing Stage, River Mersey, fare you well
I'm off to California, a place I know right well

Chorus
So, fare you well, my own true love
When I return united we will be
It's not the leaving of Liverpool that grieves me,
But darling when I think on you

I'm off to California
By way of stormy Cape Horn
And I will send you a letter, love
When I am homeward bound

Farewell to Lower Frederick Street
Anson Terrace and Park Lane,
Farewell, it well be some long time
Before I see you again

I've shipped on a Yankee clipper ship
Davy Crockett is her name;
And Burgess is the captain of her
And they say she's a floating hell

It's my second trip with Burgess in the Crockett,
And I think I know him well.
If a man's a sailor, he can get along,
But if not, he's sure in hell.

The tug is waiting at the pierhead
To take us down the stream.
Our sails are loose and our anchor secure,
So I'll bid you good-bye once more

I'm bound away to leave you,
Good-bye, my love, good-bye.
There ain't but one thing that grieves me;
That's leaving you behind.

Now, fare you well, the Prince's Landing Stage,
River Mersey, farewell you well.
I'm off to California,
A place I know right well.

Barry