Intrigued by the line in the Hollander version posted by Malcolm Douglas about selling the slaves on the Quebec shore. Were they used as loggers or to work in the sugar maple forests? The "Balfrasur" could be Valparaiso.

The Flying Cloud shows up in another guise in the Lakes song, "De Scow Jean La Plante." Here are three verses of dat epic.

Here kom dem fas' scow dey call Flying Cloud,
Cry Capitaine Batteece an' she's yall planty loud:
"Put de wheel port, look out fo' yo' head,
An' tol' Joe, de cook' fo' trow out de lead!"

Joe trow de lead and yall, "Leventeen feet!"
An'Batteece she's cry out, "Let go down do main sheet!
Trow de dog ovaire an' all yo' can spare,
We mus' beat dat scow boat 'cross Lac Sainte Claire!"

---------\
De mornin' she's kom wid de sun shinin' bright,
But de Flying Cloud scow she's nowhere in sight,
For her centerboar' catch on wan beeg catfeesh line,
An' dat was de reason she's got lef' behin'!

First printed in The Detroit Free Press, April 10, 1927, and reprinted in "Windjammers, Songs of the Great Lakes Sailors," pp. 161-162, Walton and Grimm, 2002, Wayne State University Press (Be sure and get a copy while it is still in print).