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Around Cape Horn

[ Roud 318 ; Ballad Index Doe037 ; trad.]

Peter Bellamy learned Around Cape Horn from Gale Huntington of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, the author of Songs the Whalemen Sang. He recorded it in 1979 for his Topic LP Both Sides Then.

Lyrics

Chorus (after each verse):

Right fol day, fol-de-diddle day,
Right fol right-o, fol-de-diddle day

Around Cape Horn all the young men go.
When the young men go away
Then all the young girls dress up neat,
They go a-cruisin' down the street.

Now far from the fields are the young men gone,
They're far from home and all forlorn.
They wish to God they'd never been born
To go out cruisin' round Cape Horn.

Now when those young men do return
This is the story they do hear:
“Come along with me, you need not fear
For no one has courted me this year.”

Then a fine false smile they likes for to wear
With their long false curls in long false hair,
Fine satin slippers with a silken bow,
They take those young men all in tow.