"The Raging Canal" (or "The Raging Canawl") written in 1844 is one of the most famous songs about life on the Erie Canal. "The Raging Canal" is a comic song about how "dangerous" boating on the canal was. The Erie Canal, as originally constructed, was a completely flat, shallow waterway. The barges were drawn along by mules. Thus, apart from getting wet, storms posed little danger. As for needing a distress signal, one could always step off onto dry land. The Lomaxes, in American Ballad and Folk Songs, thoroughly mingled many texts of Erie Canal songs (some of this may have been the work of their informants, but the Lomaxes did not help the problem). The sheet music of 1844 credits P. Morris as composer, lyricist and arranger. This song is widely believed to have inspired The Aged Pilot Man, a parody by Mark Twain (written by 1871). Other Erie Canal songs in this collection are "The Erie Canal" and "The E-ri-ee Canal". This is not the same song as the play-party song "Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees", also known as "Two in the Middle" where the finale ends "I lost my true love on that raging canal". This song was printed in Sandburg's The American Songbag (1927), John Lomax and Alan Lomax's American Ballads And Folk Songs (1934), Hullfish's The Canaller's Songbook (1984), Huntington's The Gam: More Songs the Whalemen Sang (2014) and Thompson's Body, Boots and Britches: Folktales, Ballads and Speech from Country New York (1939). It is included in the Roud Folksong Index as #6611. It was recorded by William Hullfish & Golden Eagle String Band on Grand Canal Ballads (1981) and Fred Vine on Songs of The Erie Canal (2009).