1874 J. Grey Jewell, M.D., "Among Our Sailors" (N.Y: Harper):

"When hauling up the foretop-sail yard, after reefing or shaking out the reefs, they sing a song of more pretensions, as follows :

"Lorenzo was no sailor —
(Chorus.) — Renzo, boys, Renzo !
He shipped on board a whaler —
Renzo, boys, Renzo !

He could not do his duty —
Renzo, boys, Renzo !
They took him to the gangway,   
And gave him eight and forty —    [missing line and/or chorus]
Renzo, boys, Renzo ! "

He sailed the Pacific Ocean—
Renzo, boys, Renzo !
Where'er he took a notion —
Renzo, boys, Renzo !

He finally got married,          [missing chorus]
And then at home he tarried —
Renzo, boys, Renzo !"


1886 Milwaukee Sentinel (Jan. 3):

"Renzo was no sailor,
My Renzo, boys, my Renzo,
An’ he shipped aboard a whaler,
My Renzo, boys, my Renzo."

1890 Journal Times (Racine, Wis.) (Oct. 25):

"[We] went down St. John’s harbor, Antigua, West Indies … past many small craft in course of lading and unlading…, their black crews, half naked, heaving and heaving on block and tackle, and swinging the great hogsheads out and in to the many inspiriting chorus chantee [sic] songs, wherein the pathetic ‘Lorenzo was a whaler’ was rather battered and discouraged by the swinging and sonorous ‘Blow the man down’; ‘Way down in Tennessee’ struggled for supremacy with ‘Phemie Brown.’”