The version collected by Ivan Walton in 1933 from E. W. Armstrong and Edward Navin at Port Hope, Ont. Walton gives no info about Armstrong, but mentions that Navin was in his seventies and had spent twenty years on the Great Lakes:

                   THE E-RI-O CANAL

I just came down from Buffalo,
    On the good ship called the Danger,
A long, long trip on the Erie boys,
    An' I feel just like a stranger.
Terrible winds and heavy weather --
    Forget it I never shall
For I'm every inch a sailor boy
    On the E-ri-o Canal.

    Haul in your bo'lin',boys,
    Stand by your sorrel mule;
    Low bridge! Duck your head,
    Don't stand there like a fool.
    For the Erie she's a-risin',
    An' our gin is gittin' low;
    And I don't think I've had a drink
    Since we left old Buffalo.

At two days out we struck a fog,
    No land could we espy,
An' a pirate boat bore down on us
    With a goddamn wicked eye.
We hollered to the captain, boys,
    To hoist a flag of truce,
But it was the boat Three Sisters out
    Four days from Syracuse.

The next day out we struck a rock
    Of Lackawanna coal,
It gave the boat an awful shock
    And stove in quite a hole
We hollered to the driver
    On the towpath pattin' dirt,
An' hejumped aboard and stopped the leak
    With his lousy undershirt.

In two weeks time we reached the Hudson
    There was Sal and me and Hank,
We greased ourselves in tallow fat
    An' slid ashore on a plank;
Now Sal is in pest house,
    An' the rest of the cew's in jail,
An' I'm the only survivin' bum
    That's left to tell the tale.


And as for "hoggie" (mule driver), Buffalo Enquirer (Jan. 11, 1892):

"And the hoggie with his ten-foot lash/ Would make the leader squeal."

Schenectady Evening Star (Dec. 8, 1871):

"Two 'hoggies,' otherwise known as canal drivers, were brought before Justice Thomson this morning for intoxication. Five dollars each."

(Five bucks in 1871 had the buying power of about $120 today: a hefty fine for mule drivers.)