A LONG TIME AGO (4)
(From the singing of Patrick Tayleur)
(Doerflinger - 'Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman' pp40-41)

Where there is a variation in the repeat of the line it is shown in parens

Oh, a long, long time and a ver-y long time,
[To me way, ha-ay, hay yah!]
oh, a long, long time, and a ver-y long time
[oh, a long time a-go]

Old Noah, he built a Hark for to sail (to go)

(Oh) Around the world and home again

Now I wend down to the docks one morn for a ship

There was an old wooden packet a-lyyin' there,

So I wnet on board and sked for a job.

Oh, it (she) must have been the old Ark that Noah built.

Her hatch you had never saw nothing before!

About thirty-six feet long and nowhere insured.

Oh, her knees were so thick that you could not discern.

It's a long, long time and a very long time

Now this is the hatch (where)the animals must have gone down.(went down)

The gangway it was built of timber six foot high

I thought that I had struck an 'ome at last,

Where I could make a pay-day and go

Out to the western shores and away

But I had (I had) made a mistake when I judged her that way,

For at last, when we got out and to sea

Her bow it was bluff and her counter was round

Her fores'l would come to within about six points,

Her fo'c'sle was low and her ppoop was so high

That she looked just like a Dutch galley-old-yacht

So it's a long, long time and a very long time
Oh it's a long long time and a very long time