Bonita and Bill Butler by Sidney Cox. Sung by Dan Timinski and Union Station scantling yards = where the narrow ribs (scantling) for riverboats or other sailing ships created the hull Wheeling, West Virginia = on the Ohio River, one of the largest in the US, and a good site for a shipyard wheelhouse cub = a kid growing up wanting to pilot a riverboat open door = an invitation to learn the river and become a pilot packet ways = packet steamers took on both cargo and passengers, so a yard where boats of this type were assembled a Sweeney = slang for an Irishman wed the keel = attached the ribs of the hull to the keel of the ship my Bonita = the name of the riverboat he fell in love with from her timbers = from the time she was just timber on the ground till she moored = to the time she was launched and tied up at the dock paid the fare in billet = billet was the passenger category of travel Vicksburg (Mississippi) = a key river town in the Civil War hand the tiller on the course = help work the "arm" that controlled the rudder of a shop and set the direction of sailing sealed the vow = sealed a promise (like marriage) to be faithful to "my Bonita" her dowry = the price paid by a husband in some cultures to the woman he was marrying her dowry was my life between the shores = a life of sailing back and forth between ports on the opposite banks of a river born with rogue'in ways = misspelled in most versions. A 'rogue' was a man without moral boundaries in his life steered me like a woman = like a woman (mother, wife) determined to keep her (boy, man) out of trouble from the port calls = the towns where the Bonita tied up to the dock and the bawds that led me stray = bawdy, lewd, obscene, filthy temptations (probably women and bars) led me stray = led me astray (cal-ee-ope) = rural pronunciation for caliope = an organ, powered by the ship's steam engine serenades = many riverboats would play music will tied up, in order to drum up interest and business from the town gamble shards = uncertain. small coins? can't find any reference online. to pull her chains = uncertain, but probably to help with tying the ship up to the local dock striker = uncertain striker's boast would fain me loss = would deceive me about the wrecks the shoals were keeping = about how many ships ran aground in shallow water and were lost how the old girl's got poor Billy's ransom saved = also uncertain lake at Bistineau = a long, narrow waterway on the Red River in Louisiana Dixie = a town in Caddo Parish, in the far northwest corner of Louisiana on her main = on her cargo deck as the great raft disappeared = probably a "raft" of logs being floated downriver to a mill the watermark went sinking = the line along the side of a boat showing how shallow or deep she was loaded right hard = with huge force a listing on the bank = the log raft struck the Bonita, tipping her cargo into the water and driving her onto the riverbank furnace still ablaze = the ship's boiler still on full steam and setting the ship on fire stood my last upon her = stood on her deck for the last time climbed the prow = climbed up the sinking and inclined deck and onto the point of the ship's bow = his way of escape took a landsman's trade = found work in a job on land, never captained a riverboat again derelict now Milady = a last tribute to the wrecked (derelict) ship that he calls "My lady" watch log = a record kept on ship of changes in the river's course, and so on concorded = (rural) he probably means "recorded", but "concorded" would be a statement that he was not responsible bosun = the senior officer of the deck, probably second-in-command after the pilot eight bells for the change = similar to a police officer's retirement or death being honored with "We have the watch." take to widder walks = (rural) widows would often walk together in the evenings for mutual comfort; he joins them gin I stopped a drinking = he gives up alcohol, hopefully to win the heart of a widow three score aloft this crooked frame = 60 years of age and bent over now striker's boast etc etc = see earlier section