Lyr Add: Tale of the Gator-Wrangler (Ipcar)

Subject: Lyr Add: Tale of the Gator-Wrangler
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Nov 25 - 09:37 AM

The sidewheel steamboat "Robert Mitchell" was built around 1871 and I found an intriguing photo of her dated 1876, as a colorized lantern slide. I found it a fascinating vintage photo but wondered what was being unloaded in the stretchers on the gangway and what was in those burlap-wrapped boxes lined up along the levee (Check my Facebook page "Ships and Songs" for the photo). There’s a clue listed in WAY'S PACKET DIRECTORY, p. 399:

In 1876 she is said to have transported 315 live alligators from New Orleans to Cincinnati; some were only 6 inches long but others were as long as 14 feet. It’s not clear what was done with them in Cincinnati once they were unloaded, whether they were used for leather goods, restaurant food, or exhibits in a zoo.

We may never know the full truth behind this photo but it has inspired this ballad:

By Charlie Ipcar, © 11-23-2025
Tune: traditional after “Range of the Buffalo”
The Tale of the Gator-Wrangler

Dm-------------F—C--Dm
‘Twas in the year of sev-en-ty-six,
-----C---F-Dm---C-----Dm
Ap-ril, the twenty-sixth day,
-----------------------C-----Dm
When I shipped a-board the “Mitchell,”
------------------F---------G----------Dm
From New Or-leans we steamed a-way;
-----------------C----Dm
I was put in charge of the livestock,
------F--------G-------Dm
But much to my dis-may,
-----------------F--C----Dm
It was three hun-dred alligators
------------C-F-----Dm-----C--Dm
That was be-ing shipped that day.

Them gators was packed in boxes
Of every shape and size;
The smallest ones were but six inches long
But much to my surprise,
Some boxes were fourteen feet in length,
And I feared what was inside,
For they rattled up and down,
And rolled from side to side.

There was no need to feed them,
Or so the purser said;
But I must keep them wet
Or they would soon be dead;
So I dipped a pail in the river
And emptied it on a crate;
After doing that three hundred times
I was in some sorry state.

That night I had a horrid dream:
Them gators had broke free,
And was roaming ‘round the biler deck
As if upon a spree;
Just then I heard a dreadful scream
Which gave me a great shock;
I tumbled from my bunk
And rushed to check my stock.

There was gators in the dining room;
There was gators on the guards;
There was gators smoking in the lounge;
And some was playing cards;
There was gators in the galley
Chumping cold-cuts by the score;
Each had a napkin ‘round its neck,
And then they roared for more!

A gator bellied up to the bar
The bartender was sore afraid;
Though he had whiskey, rum, and rye,
He had no Gator-ade;
Just then a shady lady
Waltzed into the bar;
A gator had her in his arms,
I knew trouble was not too far.

Then the whole place exploded,
There was gators everywhere;
I said, “I’m a gator-wrangler!”
They didn’t seem to care;
Just then the purser shook me,
Stirred me from my dream,
“It’s time to water them gators, lad,
And be sure the biler deck is clean.”

And so now I’m back on shore, me boys,
In fair Cincinnati town;
And them gators and the purser
Won’t soon see me around;
This trip has been my misfortune
And caused me for to roam;
I am a gator-wrangler,
And a long, long way from home!

Cheerily,
Charlie Ipcar

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Tale of the Gator-Wrangler
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Nov 25 - 11:31 AM

Here's a link to a photo of the steamboat that I posted to my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=122133250742972091&set=a.122103390890972091

I'm not sure why it doesn't work?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Tale of the Gator-Wrangler
From: Charley Noble
Date: 25 Nov 25 - 08:38 PM

Thanks so much for fixing the link!

Now if you could only correct the typo of "Gatorade" in the 6th verse... ;-)

Charlie Ipcar

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Tale of the Gator-Wrangler (Ipcar)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 27 Nov 25 - 10:46 AM

Thanks for correcting my typo above. However, here's one more correction. The date in the first verse, 2nd line should be "twenty-sixth" rather than "eighteenth." One wants to be historically accurate in these ballads. ;-)

Our friend of our from New Orleans has found two newspaper articles which document this voyage and explain that the ultimate destination of the alligators was the National Centennial at Philadelphia, evidently for some kind of exhibit. One wonders what happened to the gators afterwards...

Cheerily,
Charlie Ipcar

Fixed -Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Tale of the Gator-Wrangler (Ipcar)
From: GerryM
Date: 27 Nov 25 - 03:22 PM

Perhaps the gators were let loose in the New York City sewer system, where, according to local legend, their descendants live today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewer_alligator