No one should be surprised, by now, that what I have posted above has changed somewhat overnight. Here's what it looks like now (copy and paste into WORD/TIMES/12 to line up chords):

Poem by Burt Franklin Jenness
From OCEAN HAUNTS, edited by Burt Franklin Jenness,
Empire Publishing Co., New York, US, © 1934, p. 45.
Adapted for singing by Charlie Ipcar, 12/8/07
Tune: after "Home with the Girls in the Morning" and "Herzogin Cecile"
Key: Dm

Sea Traders


Dm---------------C--------Dm---------------C
Rollin' down to Rio on a buckin' wooden tramp;
Dm-----------C------------------G---Dm----F----Dm
Takin' water for'r'd till her rot-ten planks were damp;
Dm------------C------------------Dm---------------C
Pitchin' like a bronco from the time we left the Keys;
Dm----------C--------------------G--Dm---F-Dm
Listin' like a kettle as she took the quart-er seas.

Chorus:

Dm--C---F-------C--------Dm
Now we're rollin' down to Rio,
-----C----F-----C------Dm
Bue-nos Aires or the Straits –
F-----------C-------Dm----C--------Dm-----C--Dm
That's the way we traded from Fu-eg-o to the States!


Loaded to the gunnels, plowing four knots an hour;
Steadied with her stays'l, but swaying like a flower;
Half a crew o' Cubans, an' a pair o' Swedish mates;
That's the way we traded from Fuego to the States. (CHO)

Callin' at Jamaica for a scuttle-butt o' rum;
Carousin' at fiestas till we'd spent our shippin' sum;
Stricken with the fever, from the islands where it grew;
Fightin' for the rations with this lazy, drunken crew. (CHO)

Reelin' round the Indies, makin' port or makin' sail;
Beatin' up to windward in a ragin' tropic gale;
Rollin' down to Rio, Buenos Aires or the Straits –
That's the way we traded from Fuego to the States. (CHO)

Cheerily,
Charley Noble