It was 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 As I did wander on some foreign shore I heard a lady and she did deplore She wept aloud and to me did say Oh, my loving husband, he's so long away With a hundred sailors he sailed away To the frozen ocean in the month of May To find a passage around the pole Where these poor sailors do sometimes go They sailed West and they sailed East Their ship on oceans of ice did freeze Only the Eskimo in his skin canoe Was the only one that ever came through In Baffin Bay where the whale fishes 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 would I freely give To say on earth that my Franklin does live To say on earth that my Franklin does live