Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature: An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891. Vol. V: Literature of the Republic, Part II., 18211834
The Yankee Man-of-War
[Date uncertain. Words and Music Printed, for the first time, in Commodore Luces Naval Songs. 1883.]
As to the authorship of the words or music of this fine old song, of Paul Joness cruise in The Ranger (Irish Channel, 1778), I am quite unable to speak. It was given me by a gentleman whose brother heard the sailors sing it, and in that way picked it up. I am confident however, that it is one of those songs that have been handed down to us from near the time of the exploit which it commemorates.Letter from COMM. STEPHEN B. LUCE, U. S. N., 21 Aug., 1885.
TIS of a gallant Yankee ship that flew the stripes and stars,
And the whistling wind from the west-nor-west blew through the pitch-pine spars,
With her starboard tacks aboard, my boys, she hung upon the gale;
On an autumn night we raised the light on the old Head of Kinsale.
It was a clear and cloudless night, and the wind blew steady and strong,