I found the song in the Digital Tradition by searching for [miles from Albany] because I figured there would be no variation in spelling in that phrase. The version in the database (click) is almost the same, but it doesn't have the great verse Steve posted about the fog. A search for Eriecan* (based on the file name at the end of the song) brings up more, like this one (click) - same song, but different. This one (click) is interesting, too.
Forgive me for making a commercial announcement, but our friends at Folk-Legacy Records have a new CD from George Ward called Oh, That Low Bridge! - Songs of the Erie Canal. Good stuff.
-Joe Offer-

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Here's the entry on this song from the Traditional Ballad Index:

E-ri-e, The

DESCRIPTION: About a "terrible storm" on the Erie Canal. "Oh, the E-ri-e was a-rising And the gin was a-getting low, And I scarcely think we'll get a little drink Till we get to Buffalo." Humorous anecdotes of a highly hazardous voyage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: canal humorous cook animal wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1825 - Erie Canal opens (construction began in 1817)
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Creighton-Maritime, p. 144, "It's Let Go Your Bowline" (1 text, 1 tune)
ThompsonNewYork, pp. 245-246, "(no title)" (assorted excerpts; see also "Black Rock Pork" on pp. 243-244, which includes much of this song although without a chorus); pp. 250-251, "The E-ri-e" (1 text)
Sandburg, p. 180, "The E-ri-e" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 45, "The E-ri-e" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 470-471, "The E-ri-e" (1 text, 1 tune); see also pp. 455-457, "Ballad of the Erie Canal" (1 text, composite and probably containing stanzaswhich belong here); pp. 459-463, "The Erie Canal Ballad" (8 texts, some fragmentary, the fourth of which appears to belong here)
Cohen-AFS1, pp. 103-104, "The E-ri-e" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 333-335, "The Erie Canal" (1 text)
Arnett, p. 56, "The Erie Canal" (1 text, 1 tune)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 87, "Erie Canal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 43, "E-ri-e" (1 text)
DT, ERICANL1 ERIECNL3*
Roud #6599
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Erie Canal" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Raging Canal (I)" (plot)
cf. "A Trip on the Erie (Haul in Your Bowline)" (plot)
cf. "The Erie Canal"
cf. "Black Rock Pork" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "Canalman's Farewel (Lay Me on the Horse-Bridge)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Calabar" (theme)
cf. "Stormy Weather Boys" (subject)
cf. "The Farmington Canal Song" (theme)
cf. ""The Wreck of the Mary Jane"" (theme)
cf. "The Wreck of the Varty" (theme)
cf. "On Board the Bugaboo" (theme)
cf. "Changing Berth" (theme)
cf. "The Wreck of the Gwendoline" (theme)
cf. "The Fish and Chip Ship" (theme)
cf. "The Shipwreck on the Lagan Canal" (theme)
NOTES: The Erie Canal, as originally constructed, was a completely flat, shallow waterway. The barges were drawn along by mules. Thus, apart from getting wet, storms posed little danger, and the only way one could run aground was to run into trash that had fallen into the canal.
As for needing a distress signal ("We h'isted (the cook) upon the pole
As a signal of distress"), one could always step off onto dry land....
The Lomaxes, in American Ballad and Folk Songs, thoroughly mingled many texts of the Erie Canal songs (in fairness, some of this may have been the work of their informants -- but in any case the Lomaxes did not help the problem). One should check all the Erie Canal songs for related stanzas.
Dan Milner, in the essay "Collecting Occupational Songs" in Scott B. Spencer, editor, The Ballad Collectors of North America, Scarecrow Press, 2012, pp. 198-199, observes that it is not known whether this song derives from the Harrigan and Hart piece "Buffalo" (printed 1878) or vice versa. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: LxU045

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The Ballad Index Copyright 2016 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

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Here are the lyrics we have in the Digital Tradition:

E-RI-E CANAL

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.

cho: O the E-ri-e was a-rising
And the gin was a-getting low.
And I scarcely think we'll get a drink
Till we get to Buff-a-lo-o-o
Till we get to Buffalo.

We were loaded down with barley
We were chock-full up on rye.
The captain he looked down at me
With his gol-durned wicked eye.

Two days out from Syracuse
The vessel struck a shoal;
We like to all be 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.

The cook she was a grand old gal
Stood six foot in her socks.
Had a foot just like an elephant
And her breath would open locks.

The wind begins to whistle
The waves begin to roll
We had to reef our royals
On that ragin' canal.

The cook came to our rescue
She had a ragged dress;
We h'isted her upon the pole
As a signal of distress.

When we got to Syracuse
Off-mule, he was dead;
The nigh mule got blind staggers
We cracked him on the head.

The cook is in the Police Gazette
The captain went to jail;
And I'm the only son-of-a-gub
That's left to tell the tale.

@canal
filename[ ERIECNL3
TUNE FILE: ERIECNL3
CLICK TO PLAY
RG