060 - A Long Time Ago (Gordon Hitchcock version)

This song was very popular in English and American Ships. It was probably, in the nineties of XIX century of the most-used halyard shanty of them all. Even the German and Scandinavians popularized versions in their own tongues. This song was sung as halyard shanty. Only one stanza is given in Stan Hugill's book.
This version comes from the mentioned "Shell Book of Shanties" (which is actually the wrong title, because the true title is "The Shell Book of Sea Shanties") by Gordon Hitchcock (1952). Fortunately, I found the book, I bought one and lonely available exemplar in the whole online world, and from Germany arrived mail with this book, so I can sing this shanty to you in full four stanzas version.
"Shanties from the Seven Seas" by Stan Hugill (1st ed: p 104).


A Long Time Ago (Gordon Hitchcock version)

A long, long time and a long time a-go,
   - To me WAY, hay, o-HI-o!
A long, long time and a long time a-go,
   - A LONG time a-GO!

*2*
A smart Yankee packet lay out in the bay:
Awaiting a fair wind to get under way,

*3*
With all her poor sailors all sick and all sore:
They'd drunk all their lime juice, and couldn't get more,

*4*
If she's not had a fair wind she's lying there still:
If she's not had a fair wind she's lying there still.