Oh, whiskey killed my sister Sue, Whiskey, Johnny, And whiskey killed the old man, too, Whiskey for my Johnny. Whiskey’s gone, what shall I do? Whiskey, Johnny, Oh, whiskey’s gone, and I’ll go too, Whiskey for my Johnny.” “Belay your maintopsail halliards.” “Aye, aye, sir.” And so the canvas is set fore and aft, topsails, topgallantsails, royals, and skysails, flat as boards, the inner and outer jibs are run up and the sheets hauled to windward; the main-and after-yards are braced sharp to the wind, the foretopsail is laid to the mast, and the clipper looks like some great seabird ready for flight. The anchor is hove up to: “I wish I was in Slewer’s Hall, Lowlands, lowlands, hurra, my boys, A-drinking luck to the old Black Ball, My dollar and a half a day.” And while some of the hands bring the anchor to the rail with cat and fish tackle, and: “A Yankee sloop came down the river, Hah, hah, rolling John, Oh, what do you think that sloop had in her? Hah, hah, rolling John, Monkey’s hide and bullock’s liver, Hah, hah, rolling John.” the rest of the crew fill away the foreyard, draw away the head sheets, and check in the after yards. As the ship pays off, and gathers way in the slack water, the longshoremen and runners tumble over the side into the Whitehall boats, the crowd at Battery Park gives three parting cheers, the ensign is dipped, and the clipper is on her way to Cape Horn. CHAPTER VIII THE CLIPPER SHIP CREWS The history of men before the mast on board American merchant ships is not a history of American sailors, for strictly speaking there have never been any American merchant sailors as a class; that is, no American merchant ship of considerable tonnage was ever manned by native-born Americans in the sense that French, British, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish, or Danish ships are manned by men born in the country under whose flag they sail. Neither have Americans ever followed the sea all their lives before the mast, as do men of the nations named. Some of the small Salem ships and perhaps a few of the Nantucket whalers of a century ago may possibly have carried entirely American crews, but if so, the men did not remain long in the forecastle.