Oh Joe! The Boat’s A-Going Over

Version 1 from a Broadside in the Frank Kidson Collection 
At the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library

OH JOE! THE BOAT'S GOING OVER

I loved a charming creature, such a very timid maid,
She can stand almost anything but of water she's afraid,
She'll have a tidy fortune when her uncle dies some day,
While on a voyage to Dover once, that girl to me did say.

Oh! Joe the boat's going over,
Oh! Joe you naughty man she cried,
Oh! Joe I wish you'd been in Dover,
Before you ever took me on the water for a ride.

The wind was blowing rather rough she clung so tight to me,
The boat began to pitch and toss, all on the briny sea,
She looked so wild she cried aloud in a frantic sort of way,
Her arms she flung around my neck and then to me did say-

I said Matilda don't be afraid now there's a dear,
With a smile she looked into my face, and gave me such a leer,
A kiss then on her cheek I stole, oh, she seemed rather shy,
And while I was kissing her, that girl to me did cry-

We landed safe in Dover, her uncle there we found,
He died two days after that, and left her eight hundred pounds.
I made Matilda my dear wife we're so happy night and day,
While sitting by her fireside sometimes she'll say-



Version 2 from March's New Songs and Ballads, Broadsheet at Bodleian Ballads
Oh, Joe, The Boat's Going Over
C. Sheard High Holborn

It happen'd on one afternoon in the month of May,
While walking out with a pretty little girl, I unto her did say;
Will you go, Miss, for a row, as we stood on the shore,
'Twill do you good, she exclaim'd it would, as she'd not been there before.

[Spoken: -And like a fool I hired a boat and when we got on the water, just because the boat began to rock a bit she exclaimed-]

Oh! Joe, the boat's a going over,
Oh! Joe, you naughty man, she cried,
Oh! Joe, I wish you'd been at Dover,
Ere you ever took me on the water for a ride.

I pull'd again with all my might, had not gone very far,
Before the girl commenced to scream, and said she'd tell her Ma;
And as these words fell from her lips a steamer came close by,
Which caused the boat to pitch and toss and her again to cry-

I felt uneasy in my mind, I scarce knew what to do,
I thought the girl would die with fright and so would all of you;
She said, "dear Joe, oh take me home, here I cannot remain,"
And then there came another wave which made her shout again-

Now thinking it would ease her mind, I pull'd towards the shore,
She told me I was very kind but would not go any more
On the water for a row, and now unto this day,
If you want to make her cross, of course you only have to say-