NEW ZEALAND WHALES
(Anon)

Come all you whale men who are cruising for sperm
Come all you seamen who have rounded Cape Horn
For our captain has told us and he says out of hand
‘There’s a thousand whale off the coast of New Zealand’

T’was early one morning just as the sun rose
That a voice from the masthead cried out, ’There she blows’
Our captain cried, ‘Where away and how does he lay?’
‘Three points on our lee, sir, scarce two miles away’

‘Then call up all hands and be of good cheer
Get your lines in your rowboats and tackle-falls clear’
We sailed off the westwind and came up apace
The whaleboats were lowered and set on the chase

We fought him alongside, harpoon we thrust in
In just over an hour, he rolled out his fin
The whale is cut-in, boys, tried-out and slowed down
He’s worth more to us, boys, than five hundred pound

Our ship it is laden for home we will steer
There’s plenty of rum, boys, and plenty of beer
We’ll spend money freely for the pretty girls ashore
And when it’s all gone we’ll go whaling for more

Note:

These were the last days of the hand-harpoon, over a hundred years ago. Sperm and right whales were common in New Zealand waters, as they had been off the coast of Peru. The Spanish-American War meant the world’s whalers came south and Kororareka in the Bay of Islands became a busy whaling port. [’Song of a Young Country’ p 8].

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--Stewie.