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The Greenland Whale Fishery

[Trad.]

This song about the ca. 1725 Spitzbergen right whale fishing was recorded in 1956 by A.L. Lloyd for his, Ewan MacColl and Harry H. Corbett's album The Singing Sailor. This recording was reissued on their albums Singing Sailors (Wattle Records) and Off to Sea Once More (Stinson Records).

A.L. Lloyd also recorded this song under the title Sperm Whale Fishery for the Riverside LP Thar She Blows! and for a third time in 1967 for the album Leviathan! Ballads and Songs of the Whaling Trade. He commented in this album's sleeve notes:

This is the oldest - and many think the best - of surviving songs of the whaling trade. It had already appeared on a broadside around 1725, very shortly after the South Sea Company decided to resuscitate the then moribund whaling industry, and sent a dozen fine large ships around Spitzbergen and the Greenland Sea. The song went on being sung with small changes all the time to bring it up to date. Our present version mentions the year 1834, the ship Lion, its captain Randolph. Other versions give other years, and name other ships and skippers (there was a whaler the Lion, out of Liverpool, but her captain's name was Hawkins, and she was lost off Greenland in 1817). We may take it that the incident described in the song is not historical but imaginary, a stylization like those thrilling engravings of whaling scenes that were once so popular. But the song's pattern of departure, chase, and return home, was imitated in a large number of whaling ballads made subsequently. It is the ace and deuce of whale songs.

A quite short version of this song was sung by the Watersons on New Voices, on the Topic sampler Sea Songs and Shanties and on the French compilation Chants de Marins IV: Ballads, Complaintes et Shanties des Matelots Anglais. It was reissued on the Watersons' CD Early Days, included on the 1993 Topic sampler Blow the Man Down: Sea Songs and Shanties and in 2004 on the Watersons' 4CD anthology Mighty River of Song.

A.L. Lloyd commented in the New Voices sleeve notes:

How old is this song? In the Watersons' version the date 1864 is given, which is thirty years too late for Greenland whaling, for by 1830 the Greenland grounds were fished out and the expeditions had transferred their attention to the seas of Baffin Bay. In any case, we know the song is very much older than it seems, for it was already in print as a broadside before 1725. The Dutch and English had opened up the Greenland grounds (where, by the way, they fished for right whales, not sperm whales) early in the sixteenth century so the song came into being some time between then and the opening years of the eighteenth. It remained a great favourite, being reprinted over and again by broadside publishers, and many versions of it have been collected from country singers during the present century. It's one of the great sea songs.

Lyrics

A.L. Lloyd's version	The Watersons' version
We may no longer stay ashore Since we're so deep in debt. So off to Greenland we will steer Some money for to get, brave boys, Some money for to get.
It was eighteen hundred and thirty-four, On March the seventeenth day, That we hoist our colours to the top of the tree And for Greenland bore away, brave boys, For Greenland bore away	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.
John Randolph was our captain's name, Our ship the “Lion” so bold. We had fifteen men and they were brave For to face the wind and cold, brave boys, To face the wind and cold
It was when we come to them icy grounds Our good ship for to moor. It was then that we wished ourselves back again With the pretty girls ashore, brave boys, With the pretty girls ashore
Our bosun he goes up aloft With a spyglass in his hand. “It's a whale, a whale, oh a whale-fish,” he cries, “And he blows at every span, brave boys, And he blows at every span.”	The lookout stood on the crosstrees high With a spyglass in his hand. “There's a whale, there's a whale, there's a whale-fish,” he cried, “And she blows at every span.”
Our captain walked on the quarterdeck And the ice was in his eye “Overhaul, overhaul, let your davit tackle falls.” And we launch our boats all three, brave boys, We launch our boats all three.	The captain stood on the quarterdeck, And a sod of a man was he. “Overhaul overhaul, let your davit tackles fall.” And we'll launch them boats to sea.
Well, every keel had its bold harpooner, It's pikeaneer a steerer also, And four jolly tars for to pull at the oars. And a-whaling we did go, brave boys, Oh a-whaling we did go.
Well, our boats got down, and the men all in And the whale was full in view. Resolved, resolved, was them whalermen so bold To strike when the whale-fish blew, brave boys, To strike when the whale-fish blew.
Well, the harpoon struck, and down went the whale With a flourish of his tail. And by chance we lost two men overboard. No more Greenland for you, brave boys, And we never caught that whale.	We struck that whale and the line played out But she gave a flurry with her tail. And the boat capsized, we lost seven of our men, And we never caught that whale.
When the captain heard of the loss of his men, It grieved his heart full sore. But when he heard of the loss of the whale, It was half-mast colours all, brave boys, It was half-mast colours all.	Now the losing of seven fine seamen, It grieved the captain sore. But the losing of a bloody sperm whale Oh, it grieved him ten times more.
The winter star did now appear, And it's time our anchor for to weigh, To stow below our running gear And from Greenland bear away, brave boys, From Greenland bear away.
Oh, that Greenland is a dreadful place, No longer can we stay. Now the cold winds blow and the whales do go And it's seldom ever day, brave boys, It's seldom ever day.	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.

Acknowledgements

The Watersons' version was transcribed by Garry Gillard. A.L. Lloyd's version is from the Leviathan! sleeve notes.