In his book, "Cape Breton Captain," Capt. David A McLeod mentions these lines heard in the late 1870s:


"We are traveling at a great rate, and the second mate sings out the old chorus....

Ha, my boys watch her as she goes
Give her sheet and let her went
We are the boys to put her through
You ought to see her howling
As the wild winds whistled free
On our passage home in eighty-nine days
From Californ-eye-ee."

"Let 'er went!' was an actual, jocular 19th century form of "Let 'er go!'"