Greenland Whale Fisheries



SOURCE: Bob Pfeffer



SOURCE'S SOURCE: Journal, Bengal, 1833



TEXT:

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'Twas in 17 hundred and 84

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And of March the seventeenth day

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That we weighed our anchors to our bow

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And for Greenland bore away, brave boys

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And for Greenland bore away.



Bold Stevens was our captain's name

And our ship the Lion so bold

And we, poor souls, our anchors weighed

To face the storms and cold, ...



And when we arriv-ed in that cold countree

Our goodly ship to moor

We wished ourselves safe back again

With those pretty girls on shore, ...



Our boatswain in the maintop stood

With a spyglass in his hand

"A whale, a whale my lads," he cried

And she spouts at every span, ...



Our captain walked the quarter-deck

And a fine little man was he

"Overhaul, overhaul, let your davit tackles fall

And launch your boats for sea," ...



We struck that whale, and down she went

But she gave a flourish with her tail

And the boat capsized, and four gallant men were drown'd

And we never caught that whale, ...



Well, the losin' of those gallant men

It grieves my heart full sore

But the losin' of a hundred-barrel whale

Well it grieves me ten times more, ...



The winter star doth now appear

So boys, we'll anchors weigh

It's time to leave this cold countree

And homeward bear away, ...



Oh, Greenland is a dreadful place

A land that's never green

Where there's ice and there's snow and the whale-fishes blow

And daylight's seldom seen, ...



@sailor @work @death @animal

versions of this recorded by

Weavers and MacColl

filename[ GREENLAN

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