G'day Ezio and Jerry,

Harry's Record (with him and Marion Henderson singing) is called (I think) "Whale Chasing Men". I have both the LP and the music book at home. I was thinking of posting the Australian coastal whaling songs as they are examples of a style of whaling not dealt with in the traditional, northern hemisphere whaling songs.

I feel an extra identification with Harry's songs (beyond having known Harry at the time he lived in Sydney with a peripatetic bunch of folkie types - including my younger brother - who flatted together in the Balmain / Rozelle area).

My uncle Vik (my mother's sister's husband) was a Danish whaler who came ashore when he married Norma and worked as a stockmen in the western districts, but every few years he would chuck in the job and get down to Sydney to sign on for a southern whaling season. He would be away for 4 or 5 months hunting whales and then he would be back on a horse in the Australian outback! He never tried shore-based whaling of the Queensland whalers but the spirit is much the same.

Regards,

Bob Bolton