Capt. David A. McLeod (1857-1940) recalls his first days on shipboard, in 1873, in "Cape Breton Captain" (not published till 1992):

"I heard the mate (he was an old country Irishman) singing out in a pleasant cheery voice: 'Now then, boys, strike a light, it's duller than a graveyard.' One of the sailors, a good chanty man, started in [raising the anchor] with:

In eighteen hundred and fifty-six
I found myself in a H--l of a fix
From working on the railway - the railway
Oh poor Paddy works on the railway

In eighteen hundred and fifty-seven
When Daniel O'Connell he went to heaven
He worked upon the railway - the railway
Oh poor Paddy works on the railway

In eighteen hundred and fifty-eight
I was outward bound for the Golden Gate
To work upon the railway - the railway
Oh poor Paddy worked on the railway

and so on to the end of the century."

(Well, not quite!)