Down the Mississippi steamed the Whippoorwill
The owners gave him orders on the strict QT,
To try and beat the record of the Robert E. Lee!
"Just speed up your fire, let the old smoke grow,
Burn up all your cargo if you run outta coal.
If we don't beat that record," Billy told the mate,
"Send the mailer, carrier Peter to the Golden Gate!"
Gonna beat the record of the Robert E. Lee!
Often said the gambling man from Louisville,
Who tried to get a bet against the Whippoorwill!
Billy flashed a roll that surely was a bear
The boiler, it exploded, threw them up in the air!
The gambler said to Billy as they left the wreck,
"I don't know where we're going, but we're neck-and-neck!"
I'll bet another thousand I'll go higher than you!"
Explosion of the boiler got him up in the air!
The more you'll hear the puffing of the Whippoorwill!
There's scrape on every steamboat that ploughs those streams
From Memphis, right to Nashville, down to New Orleans!
The wife of Mr. William was at home in bed
When she got the telegram the steamboat said,
That she, to the children, "Blessed honey lambs,
Your next pappa that you'll have will be a railroad man!"
He's a pilot, on a ferry in that promised land!
He's a pilot, on a ferry in that promised land!