The hard work and drudgery of being a stevedore stowing sugar in the hold below could be easier to bear when recalling (or fantazing) about women known in various ports of call.

(Note that these are my NEW lyrics, NOT the traditional fragments from the 19th Cent. which didn't rhyme or tell much of a story.)

Hey ho. Below – below. Stowing sugar in the hold below
Hey ho. Below – below. Stowing sugar in the hold below

I knew a rough gal in N’awlins town
She always dressed in hand-me-downs
She would set ‘em up then knock ‘em down
She was sugar in the hold below
      CHORUS

I knew a Georgia gal called Happy Hannah (or Cuban gal)
A big brown gal down in old Savannah (or Havana)
She stomped her feet when she played piana
She was sugar in the hold below
        CHORUS

I knew me a gal in South Carolina
In Charleston port no one was finer
A working gal since she was a minor
She was sugar in the hold below
        CHORUS

I knew a long, tall gal on the Chesapeake shore
She was the toast of Baltimore
Made me feel like a kid in a candy store!
She was sugar in the hold below
        CHORUS

I knew a wee little gal in New York City
She was mighty sweet and mighty pretty
But now she’s spliced and more’s the pity
She was sugar in the hold below
        CHORUS

In Boston, Mass, I knew an Irish lass
We wined and dined with the upper class
Went out on the town, but never to Mass
(She’d rather play with my snake in the grass!) (optional addenda)
She was sugar in the hold below
       CHORUS (x2)