My mother was born in 1917 in Port Arthur, Ontario, now the city of Thunder Bay. When we were pulling home after a rowboat outing, we'd keep the rythm by singing the following:

Pull for the shore, sailors, pull for the shore
Heed not the rolling waves but bend to the oar.
Safe in the lifeboat sailors cling to the earth no more,
Leave the poor old stranded wreck and pull for the shore.

She credited it to her mother, and that's all she ever sang of it. It sounds to me like a hymn with a "lifeboat" metaphor, but it could be an actual Great Lakes chantey. Or Grandma might have made it up. Mother hs Alzheimer's now, so any more information she might have had about the song is pretty much lost. If anybody knows any more, or has heard it or a song like it, I'd appreciate hearing. I only have Corporate e-mail at work, and can't access the Cafe directly, so please direct replies to Theodore.Agnew@Columbia.net

Thanks,
Lee Agnew

Lee Agnew, Surgical Materials Coordinator Children's Operation Room University Health Partners, Oklahoma city Phone 405-271-3210 Email Theodore.Agnew@Columbia.net