Johnross refers to the recording of the song on Songs for Political Action, which has lyrics just slightly different from those I posted two messages above. Maybe one us us should get up the energy to post the lyrics from that version. I think you'll notice that the chorus tune of later versions of MTA is different from the original. On the original and on "Ship," the tune of the chorus almost matched the tune of the verses. Was it the Kingston Trio that changed the melody of the chorus?

This page at MIT has some interesting information on the song. I sure would like to see the other songs that Steiner and Lomax-Hawes wrote for the O'Brien campaign.
I think there's a good chance that the recording of the song on Songs for Political Action is older than the published version of the song.

Up toward the top of this thread, some people opined that "MTA" was derived from "Old 97," and was thus a grandchild of "Ship That Never Returned." Note that "97" has no chorus, and that "MTA" has a chorus that is obviously derived from "Ship." So, I guess that MTA and 97 are sister songs, not mother-daughter...

-Joe-