I Am Waiting on the Levee

DESCRIPTION: "I am waitin' on the levee, Waitin' for the steamboat to come down, I hope she's loaded pretty heavy, I hope she's loaded to the ground. I think I hear her whistle blowin'... It must be the Natchez or the Robert Lee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: racing ship river
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 30, 1870 - Race between the Natchez and the Robert E. Lee.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 57-58, "I Am Waitin' on the Levee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10019
NOTES [179 words]: The Natchez, built 1869, and the Lee, built 1866, were regular competitors on the Natchez/New Orleans run. In 1870, the two captains agreed to a race.
It wasn't an equal contest, though -- the Natchez (thought by many to have been the slightly faster boat) took an ordinary load of passengers and cargo; the Lee was stripped for the race and drove through a fogbank. The Lee won the race by seven hours -- six of which the Natchez spent waiting out the fog to protect her passengers' safety.
The race was famed in popular folklore (see, for instance, Botkin's Mississippi River Folklore, pp. 58-61), but it didn't really set any records; it was just a straight race. And, interestingly, true folk songs about it are rare. Wheeler's song is the first I've encountered to mention it, and it's only a fragment; the real subject might be something else. There appear to be at least five books about the event, though; Manly Wade Wellman's Fastest on the River the Great Steamboat Race Between the Natchez and the Robert E Lee appears to be the easiest to find. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: MWhee057

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography