Rick has recently added this to our repertoire (2026).  It can be found in “Folk Songs of Newfoundland”, (c)1953; collected from the singing of Alan Mills.  It supposedly comes from Greenleaf & Mansfield, Twillingate, 1929 and Creighton (“Loakey’s Boat”), 1932.  It’s one of those Canadian maritime songs that fits nicely into modern musical interpretations, therefore often mistaken as a modern composition and subsequently attempted to protect as a copyright by way of ASCAP of BMI.  It is, in fact, public domain.

Jos. Morneault

River/coastal schooner

1. Lukey’s boat was painted green
Aha, me boys
Lukey’s boat was painted green
The prettiest boat that ever was seen
Aha, me diddle I day (2x)

2. Lukey’s boat got a fine fore cutty
Aha…
And every seam was chinked with putty.
Aha…

3. Lukey’s boat got a hoist-up jib;
And a patent block to her foremast head.

4. “I think,” says Lukey, “I’ll make her bigger –
Load ‘er down with a one-claw jigger.”

5. “And now,” says Lukey, “Get aboard your grub,
One split pea and a ten-pound tub.”

6. Lukey, he sailed down the shore
To get some fish from Labrador.

7. Lukey he looked ’round and ’round
“Me wife is dead for the blinds are down.”

8. “Waho!”, says Lukey, “I don’t care –
I’ll get me another in the fall of the year!”