From the recording Bound Away
This is one of many songs about the Dreadnought - although this is the only version we have found where she is sailing east.
The Dreadnought was launched by Currier & Townsend in 1853 in Newburyport Mass. Put into service under Captain Samuel Samuels as a transatlantic packet she would make an average voyage of 19 days from New York to Liverpool England with cargoes of corn, cotton and other raw materials. The return voyage, with immigrants and manufactured goods, took an average of 26 days. In 1860 she made the crossing from New York to liverpool in nine days and thirteen hours, a record that stood as the fastest crossing of the Atlantic until the advent of racing catamarans in the 1980s. In all, she made twenty trips between the two great ports, before she was nearly sunk in a great storm in 1863." She sailed in the Atlantic and China trade until going down rouding Cape Horn in 1869.
Ships that carried the mail were called "packets." Swallow Tail and Black Ball were competing lines.
Lyrics
Bound away, bound away. Where the stormy winds blow.
Bound away in the Dreadnought to the eastward we go.
The day of our sailing is fast drawing nigh
And you my dear sweetheart I'll bid you good-bye
Godd luck to New York and all my friends here
Bound away in the Dreadnought to the eastward we steer.
And now we are hauling of the Long Island shore
Our captain's on deck, as often before
Saying,"Crowd on all sail, boys, and let her run free
"For the Dreadnaught is a clipper and fears not the sea."
And now we are sailing off the shore of Newfoundland
Where the waters change color and the bottom is sand
Where the fish of the ocean swim about to and fro
Bound away in the Dreadnought to the eastward we go.
And now we are sailing on the ocean so wide
Where the mighty blue billows rush against our dark side
Our sails neatly trimmed, the red cross to show
Bound away in the Dreadnaught to the eastward we go.
Here's a health to the Dreadnought and all her brave crew.
To bold captain Samuels and his officers too.
Talk about your flash packets, Swallowtail or Black Ball.
The Dreadnought's the clipper that will beat one and all!