Victoria Nautical Song Circle's
April 2001 Song Of The Month


GREENLAND WHALE

(transcribed from the CD 'Blow the man down')
They took us jolly sailor lads
A-fishing for the whale
On the fourth day of August in 1864,
Bound for Greenland we set sail.
 
The lookout stood on the crosstrees high,
With a spyglass in his hand
"There's a whale, there's a whale, there's a whalefish," he cried,
"And she blows at every span."
 
The captain stood on the quarterdeck
And a sod of a man was he.
"Overhaul, overhaul, let your downy tackles fall,
And we'll launch them boats to sea."
 
We struck that whale and the line played out,
But she gave a flurry with her tail
And a boat capsized, we lost seven of our men,
And we never caught that whale.
 
Well the losin' of seven fine seamen,
It grieved the captain sore
But the losin' of the bloody sperm whale,
It grieved him ten times more.
 
Now Greenland is a horrid place
Where our fisher lads have to go
Where the rose and the lily never bloom in spring,
No there's only ice and snow.
 


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