Just to muddy the waters, I submit this from Maine collections

OLD HORSE p222 Minstrelsy of Maine by Fanny Hardy Eckstorm 1925

Fifty years ago every Maine child knew the sailor lines
on ‘The Old Horse’:

‘Old horse, old horse, what brought you here?’
‘From Saccarap’ to Portland Pier
I carted stone this many a year;
Till now, worn down by sore abuse,
I’m salted down for sailors’ use.
The sailors they do me despise,
They turn me o’er and damn my eyes,
Cut off my meat and pick my bones
And throw the rest to Davy Jones.’

1 After this was in type, we obtained a fragment of this song from Mrs. Joan B. Moore, of Seawall, Southwest Harbor, who said that the song used to be much sung along the coast in her childhood.

Mrs. Lewis F. Gott, of Bernard, adds two lines not found elsewhere:

Between the mainmast and the pump
I’m salted down in great big junks.

‘My father, Captain J. W. Carroll,’ writes Mrs. Seth S. Thornton, ‘ told us that sailors used to take the tough salt meat that was furnished for their rations up on a fork and repeat this verse:

‘Old hoss, old hoss, what brought you here?
You carted dirt for many a year
From Saccarap’ to Portland Pier;
But now worn out by sore abuse,
You’re salted down for sailors’ use.
We’ll turn you over and pick your bones
And cast the rest to Davy Jones.’

The rhymes were known by the name of ‘ The Sailor’s Grace.’ ‘There was his grace before meat,’ writes Miss Colcord (p. 114), ‘when the beef kids came in from the galley,’ and she quotes a form like the first given. ‘There was a good deal said about horse beef in those days, and you could hear that song almost anywhere among sailors,’ said an old sailor to Mr. Windsor P. Daggett, remarking upon its being sung in Vermont upwards of a century ago.

The earliest printed form of this disparaging ditty is in a footnote in Richard Henry Dana’s ‘Two Years before the Mast,’ where he gives substantially our first version, with comments as interesting as they are authentic. The best pieces of beef in a barrel were reserved for the cabin, he said; the poorer, for the crew. ‘There is a singular piece of rhyme, traditional among sailors, which they say over such pieces of beef. I do not know that it ever appeared in print before. When seated round the kid, if a particularly bad piece of beef is found, one of them takes it up and addresses it thus’—and he quotes the lines, including Saccarappa and Portland Pier.

Saccarappa is now Westbrook, near Portland; paving-blocks cut there, at one time a considerable industry, were hauled by horses to Portland for vessel shipment. The song was carried all over the seas by Maine sailors and even worked its way into foreign vessels. The writer still vividly recalls the old British man-of-warsman, on the Pacific coast, who sometimes came in for a roast-beef dinner, who, after the meal was over, would remark, ‘Now I’ll sing you the sailors’ grace.’ Then he would shut his eyes, throw back his head and straightway begin ‘The Old Horse,’ ending it with a

4 Poo-or old horse, let him die-e-e'

which seemed to be drawn from his boots it was so deep and long intoned. And to the Maine girl there was always a strangeness in hearing this old British sea-dog singing of Saccarap’ and Portland Pier.

Of late years this ‘Sailors’ Grace’ has become very much mixed up with two songs. One is the halliards chantey of ‘Poor Old Horse,’ or ‘Poor Old Man,’ which is only the ‘Grace’ adapted as a work song by inserting chorus parts and a story element. The difference in use chiefly distinguishes the two. A form given by W. B. Whall in ‘Ships, Sea-Songs and Shanties’ (first ed. pub. 1910) has a part resembling the Maine song:

Old horse, old horse, what brought you here
After carrying sand for many a year
From Bantry Bay to Ballywhack,
Where you fell down and broke your back?
Now after years of such abuse,
They salt you down for sailors’ use,
They tan your hide and burn your bones
And send you off to Davy Jones.

(From 4th ed., p. 118.)

This is no improvement on ‘Saccarap’ and Portland Pier,’ and as it was not printed until more than seventy years after Dana heard the song sung — which he says was even then ‘traditional’ - a heavy burden of proof is placed upon the shoulders of any who claim that the Maine song is the adaptation.

The ceremonial of ‘burying the dead horse’ was, as Miss Colcord says, a purely English custom, and connecting it with the Maine form of the ‘Grace’ is misleading and shows the writer to be only a ‘paper sailor.’

The other poem often confused with this is the English song called ‘My Old Horse,’ where the worn-out creature disposes of his bones and hide by making his will. This should not be confounded with the sailor songs mentioned, as all they have in common is a similarity of title.

——————
from Songs of the Maine Lumberjacks by Roland Palmer Gray 1924 p 104
Poor Old Horse

THIS song, of English origin but adapted by tradition to localities in Maine, was originally sung as part of a sailors' ceremony known as "the burial of the dead horse," a full account of which (with a text of the song) is given by Evelyn A. Melvill Richards in Folk-Lore > 1897, VIII, 281-283. For English texts (with tune) see also Bullen and Arnold, Songs of Sea Labour i , No. 29, p. 25; Tozer, Sailors' Songs, jd ed., No. 47, pp. 88-89; Whall, Sea Songs and Shanties, 4th ed., p. 119; Sharp, English Folk-Chanteys, No.
47, p. 52. It has often been used as a chantey. A fragmentary
American text (with tune) may be found in Admiral Luce's Naval
Songs, 2d ed., 1902, p. 224.

A somewhat similar song ("Poor Old Horse"), though quite
distinct from this, is current in England. See Sharp, One Hun-
dred English Folksongs, pp. xxxix, 196-197; Sharp, English Folk
Songs, Selected Edition, II, xviii, 88-89; Sharp, Folk-Songs
of England, IV, 16-17; Sharp and Marson, Folk Songs from
Somerset, I, 54; Baring-Gould and Sharp, English Folk-Songs for
Schools, No. 20, pp. 42-43. This is common in recent English
broadsides (Forth, Pocklington; J. Livsey, Manchester, No.
240; Bebbington, Manchester, No. 140; Cadman, Manchester,
No. 33), but the oldest printed text recorded is in a Boston,
Massachusetts, broadside in the Isaiah Thomas collection (formed
in 1813) in the library of the American Antiquarian Society (II,
120), "My Old Horse."

THE POOR OLD HORSE

THIS little chantey, Professor L M. Merrill (Orono, Maine) says,
was taught him by his mother. He adds, "I understand that the
song was once in general use along the New England coast"
"Saccarappa" was the old name of Westbrook, Maine.

I "Old horse, old horse/ how came you here ? "
"From Saccarap to Portland pier
I've carted stone for many a year.

Maine lumberjacks 105

2 "Till, killed by blows and sore abuse,
I was salted down for sailors' use.

3 "The sailors they do me despise;
They turn me over and damn my eyes;

4 "Cut off my meat and pick my bones,
And pitch the rest to Davy Jones/'

THE POOR OLD MAN

FROM Professor S. P. Chase, 1911, as sung to him "by Mr.
Charles Creighton, of Thomaston, Maine, who was at one time
a sailor and whose father was a sea-captain." A similar version
was printed by Mr. Creightons son, James A. Creighton, in The
Bowdoin Quill, December, 1910, XIV, 230-231.

1 There was an old man came riding along
Chorus. And we say so, and we know so.
There was an old man came riding along
Chorus. With a poor old horse.

2 Says I, "Old man, your horse will die
Chorus. And we say so, and we know so."
Says I, "Old man, your horse will die
Chorus. This poor old horse!"

3 "And if he dies, we'll tan his hide
Chorus. And we say so, and we know so.
And if he lives, we'll take a ride
Chorus. This poor old horse!"

4 From Saccarapp to Portland Pier
Chorus. And we say so, and we know so.
He's carted rock for many a year
Chorus. This poor old horse!

5 And now worn out with sore abuse,
Chorus. And we say so, and we know so.
Salted down for sailors' use
Chorus. This poor old horse!