Lyr Req: Mr. Captain Stop the Ship

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mr. Captain Stop the Ship
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Jan 16 - 10:52 AM

Nicely tided up.

The world is now a better place!

Thanks, Joe!

Charlie Ipcar

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mr. Captain Stop the Ship
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Jan 16 - 02:46 AM

I combined the two thread on this song. Once upon a time, www.traditionalmusic.co.uk was mostly a mirror of the songs from our Digital Tradition Folk Song Database. This song isn't in the DT. I wonder where www.traditionalmusic.co.uk got it from.
Sometimes I get peeved at that Website for stealing things, but I have to admit that it has become a warehouse of valuable stuff.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Oh Mr. Captain Stop the Ship!
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 30 Jan 16 - 02:25 AM

Thanks, that's it! Spelling out 'Mister' also gives this thread with mention of a Michigan tradition (no lyrics.)

thread.cfm?threadid=146855#3401553

But I just don't seem to know how to hold my mouth right to search for "Oh Mr. Captain"!!!

To close this thread:

Subject: Lyr Add: MISTER CAPTAIN, STOP THE SHIP
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 Jan 12 - 01:24 AM

From www.traditionalmusic.co.uk:

(aka: "I'll Never Reach New York" and no mention of the PA fellow.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Oh Mr. Captain Stop the Ship!
From: GUEST,#
Date: 29 Jan 16 - 02:25 PM

Your question (I think) was answered by Jim Dixon on this thread.

Subject: Lyr Req: Oh Mr. Captain Stop the Ship!
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 28 Jan 16 - 08:15 PM

Aka: "O Mr. Captain, Stop the Ship, I Want to Get Off and Walk"

Typical mention:
"In the evening a dozen of the younger officers and newspaper men used to get together in a sheltered place on the quarterdeck with banjos and guitars, and the soft, steady trade-winds carried away to leeward the words and music of Kipling's "On the Road to Mandalay," or the land-lubber's song,

        O Mr. Captain, stop the ship!
        I want to get off and walk.

[Kennan, George, The Tragedy of Pelée, (New York, The Outlook Company, 1902, pp8-9.)]


"...George Frederick Sides, who was born in Germany and in 1835 emigrated to the United States. He was a tanner and worked at his trade in Reading, Elizabethtown, Lancaster county, and Middletown. He was a Democrat and a member of St. Peter's Lutheran church.

...Mr. Sides, the father, is remembered as the author of the famous song, "O Mr. Captain, Stop the Ship, I Want to Get Off and Walk."

[Kelker, Luther Reily, History of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Vol.3 (New York, The Lewis Pub., Co., 1907, p.330]

Subject: Lyr Add: MISTER CAPTAIN, STOP THE SHIP
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 Jan 12 - 01:24 AM

From www.traditionalmusic.co.uk:


MISTER CAPTAIN, STOP THE SHIP
Words by W. A. Archbold. Music by Felix Macglennon.
New York: Spaulding & Gray, ©1891

1. On a trip across the ocean I to New York came last year,
But the ocean's misty motion set me feeling very queer;
When I saw my elder sisters lying groaning side by side,
I clutched the captain by the whiskers and I, trembling, cried:

CHORUS. "Mister Captain, stop the ship. I want to get out and walk;
I feel so flipperty flopperty-flip that I'll never see New York.
Mister Captain, stop the ship, I'm sick of the raging main;
Hi! hi! send me a cab to take me home again."

2. When I said, "Good Mister Captain, tell me when's the next car home,"
He laughed and shook his head and said, "No cars upon the foam.
You will have to go to New York, dear, before you're home again;
You must cheer up," he murmured, but I cried with might and main:-CHORUS.

3. Once I said when tempest blew hard, "I'll die if it keeps like this."
"Not at all," replied the steward; "try some good old whiskey, Miss."
Nevermore upon the ocean shall I trust myself again,
Or ever give the ocean's motion chance to cause me pain. CHORUS.

Subject: RE: lyr/Origins: I'll Never Reach New York
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Mar 10 - 06:46 PM

The British Library has the sheet music:

MR. CAPTAIN STOP THE SHIP
Words, W. A. Archbold. Music, Felix Macglennon.
New York : Spaulding & Gray, 1894.

Subject: RE: lyr/Origins: I'll Never Reach New York
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Mar 10 - 06:32 PM

This quote appears in an article "Folk-Song of Nebraska and the Central West: A Syllabus" by Louise Pound, in Publications of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences, Vol. 9, No. 3, 1915, page 61:

XXII. Humorous Songs

14. O MR. CAPTAIN, STOP THE SHIP

O Mr. Captain, stop the ship. I want to get out and walk.
I feel so flippety flippety flop, I'll never reach New York.
O Mr. Captain, stop the ship. I'm sick of the raging main.
Hire, hire, O hire a cab, and take me home again.

Subject: RE: lyr/Origins: I'll Never Reach New York
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Mar 10 - 01:24 AM

refresh - anybody?

Subject: Origins: I'LL NEVER REACH NEWYORK
From: HiHo_Silver
Date: 13 Aug 05 - 01:42 PM

Here is a few lines of a song that my Grandfather used to sing.
It would be fun to know the title and lyrics.

Mr. captain stop your ship
I want to get off and walk
I feel so flipity flopity flip
I'll never reach New York.

This is as much as my Grandfather knew. I have never heard it from anywhere else.