I've just been listening to this on my vinyl copy of Leaqdbell's Last Sessions. And driving myself crazy trying to get the words of the last verse.

First two verses and the chorus I agree with him (apart from it beuing "So that's how come that yiou and I" in the last line of vwerse two, instead of "So that's why you and I")

But that last verse is a right bugger:

Here's the nearest I can get to it, but it's not right:

So the boat upblew somewhere in Spain
Oh the keel was smashed ...
Steam put out.............to Maine
Oh it took some time for the crew to learn
What's bad for the bow aint good for the stern
If you had to take fire in China Bay,
then in harbour deck's going to blaze away.

Please Brad, or someone else with a better ear for Leadbelly's accent than I have, could you come to the rescue. This is a song that we ought to be able to sing, and what gets in the way is having a full set of words to sing..

I was wondering if the Maine there in the third verse might be something to do with the Battleship that blew up and was blamed on the Spanish, to justify the war back in 1898?

The whole thing doesn't to me sound like Leadbelly made it up. I suspect he might have improved a song he came across. So maybe there's a printed or manuscript version around somewhere to help out?