It was homeward bound one night on the deep

Swinging in my hammock I fell asleep

I dreamt a dream and I thought it true

Concerning Franklin and his gallant crew

As I was wandering 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 seamen 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

All 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