We were homeward bound one night on the deep Swinging in my hammock I fell asleep I dreamed a dream and I thought it true Concerning Franklin and his gallant crew With a hundred seamen he sailed away To the frozen ocean in the month of May To seek a passage around the pole Where we poor sailors do sometimes go Through cruel hardships they vainly strove Their ships on mountains of ice were drove Only the Eskimo with his skin canoe Was the only one that ever came through In Baffin's Bay where the whale fish blow The fate of Franklin no man may know The fate of Franklin no tongue can tell Lord Franklin alone with his sailors do dwell And now my burden it gives me pain For my long-lost Franklin I would cross the main Ten thousand pounds I would freely give To know on earth, that my Franklin do live