A song composed by a sailor from Buffalo, New York named Clark and originally sung by James Dix of Kingston, Ontario, ca. 1880
Click here to hear Ian Bell sing The Mules That Walked Our Fo’c’sle Deck
Click here to hear Lee Murdock and the Blue Water Band sing The Mules That Walked Our Fo’c’sle Deck
The mules that walked our fo’c’sle deck,
They were two mules of fame;
They sailed the lakes for many a year,
Napoleon and Bones their names.
Our cabin boy was the caps’n mate,
The mules the caps’n crew.
Their ears were long, their heels were light,
But sailoring they knew.
They’d weigh the anchor, kedge[i] the ship,
And hoist the flowing sail;
But like all sailormen ashore,
They sometime there would fail.
Old Bones was long and lank and slow,
His ears flopped when he walked.
Napoleon was not near his size,
And he kept his long ears cocked.
They came aboard at Calvin’s yard,[ii]
We anchored them in the bow;
And set our course for the Upper Lakes,
With all speed the wind allowed.
As we went rolling up the lake
Into a nor’west breeze,
Napoleon stood with his legs apart,
Old Bones was at his ease.
And every time the mate would shout
“Stand by to come about!”
They’d shift their tails to the weather rail
Without ever lookin’ out.
Then one day upon our starboard tack,
Port Dalhousie did loom,
We all stood upon the deck
And topped the long jibboom.
Our mules we led o’er the landward rail
To tow us through the locks,
But they decided they’d rather sail
And stood there like a rock.
The mule-boy beat old Bones and swore,
But nothing could prevail;
A canaller jumped up on the bank
And twisted Napoleon’s tail.
Napoleon “ee-onked” and dropped his head,
He seemed to be in pain—
The canaller straightway lost his grip,
And landed in the drain.
They wound him with his halter rope,
Old Bones just stood and snored.
Napoleon smiled and seemed to purr
When we brought them back aboard.
We towed up through the twenty locks,
The Old Man had to pay;
Then with jibboom set and sails aloft,
We again were under way.
We rolled along to Pelee Point,
Where a tug took us in tow;
We were the last in a line of craft
Up the rivers for to go.
Four schooners towing in a line,
We were a pleasant sight;
But sailors must have no time off,
They might get drunk or fight.
We scrubbed and scraped and swabbed the deck;
Our mules they were no help.
When all was cleared they’d hump their backs,
And then relieve themselves.
The fo’c’sle deck by the post was loose
An’ far from sanitary,
Napoleon had his chosen spot,
And he was quite contrary.
All day we towed, then Gratiot Light[i]
We were out upon the lake;
We got a slant up Huron shore,
And headed for the Straits.
When we made the Cheboygan port
Where a cargo did await,
We cleared our hold of the upbound freight
Squared timbers for to take.
We dropped our fore and after hooks,
And opened our stern ports wide;
The raftsmen brought the timbers up
And floated them ‘longside.
Napoleon then looked ’round the scene,
The first time on our trip;
He saw the timbers floating ’round,
Then said, “Let’s load the ship!”
The loading waneys[ii] squeaked and squawked,
And made some doleful sounds;
Our mules just thought it as love talk,
As they walked the caps’n ‘round.
They walked the caps’n ‘round and ‘round,
In calm and sun ’n storm;
They walked the deck ten thousand miles,
Where a splintered path they’d worn.
We filled the hold, we piled the deck,
Then haled out in the lake;
Old Bones, you are a shipmate true,
But Napoleon should be mate!
[i] Gratiot Light: located at the entrance to the St. Clair River from Lake Huron.
[ii] Waneys: timbers.
[i] Kedge: to move a ship by means of a line attached to a small anchor dropped at a distance and in the direction desired.
[ii] Calvin’s yard: the Calvin Company was a shipyard on Garden Island near Kingston.
Published in Spirit of the Big Ditch: The Story of the Welland Canals in Pictures, Poems and Songs. Compiled, edited and annotated by Robert Ratcliffe Taylor. St. Catharines: The Historical Society of St. Catharines, 2024
The Historical Society of St. Catharines 