The Maine version has an additional first verse, as do the Canadian (Fowke) and Australian (Mark Gregory) variants. Will Merritt (1941), the singer of the Maine variant says he learned it from his Scottish mother. Colcord (actually first published in 1924) does not include this verse, nor does she give the origin of her version. Sam Henry (1939), from Northern Ireland, also does not include this verse.

THE FATE OF FRANKLIN
Will Merritt, Ludlow Maine USA 1941
Helen Hartness Flanders Collection
Middlebury College, VT

A sailor bold and undaunted stood
As waves rolled over the briney flood
Come pay attention to what I say
'T will put you in mind of a sailor's dream

We were homeward bound one night on the deep
When in my hammock I fell asleep
I dreamt a dream which I thought was true
Concerning Franklin and his brave crew

As we drew near to old England's shore
I heard a lady so sad implore
She wept aloud and she seemed to say
"Alas my Franklin's so far away"

It' s seven long years since that ship of fame
It bore my Franklin across the main
With a hundred sailors with courage true
To find a northwestern passage through

To find a passage around the Pole
Where lightning flashes and loud thunder rolls
It's more than any man can do
With a heart undaunted and courage true

There was Captain Kelly of Sedgewick town
And Captain Osburn of high renown
And Doctor Tate like so many more
That's long been cruising the Arctic shore

Oh they sailed east and they sailed west
From Greenland's Island where they thought best
They met hardships and vainly strove
With mountains of ice where their ship was stove

In Baffin's Bay where the cold wind blows
There the fate of Franklin nobody knows
Five hundred pounds would I freely give
To know on earth does my Franklin live

But alas he's gone like many more
That's left their home to return no more
God bless the widows who sorely weep
For loss of husbands upon the deep.