EDGARTON WHALING SONG

Come all you girls of Edgartown
A line to you I'll write,
While crossing o'er the ocean wide
In which we take delight,
In sailing o'er these raging seas
As we poor sailors do,
Not like those lazy landlubbers
Who stay at home with you.

They'll stay at home with you, my dears,
And tell with lips unsealed,
Concerning all their harvest work
That's done in our corn fields,
In cutting off the grass so green,
It's all that they can do;
While we like jovial hearted lads,
Go plow the ocean through.

We plow the ocean through, my dears,
And smell the salt sea breeze;
We haven't any barnyard smell
About our dungarees.
Our necks and arms are sunburnt brown
From tropic seas we bring,
As jolly a set of sailor lads
That ever yards did swing.

We cruised about the Southern Seas
For sperm and humps as well,
And many a whale we fastened to;
We've got a yarn to tell.
In fourteen months we filled the ship
And then the welcome sound
Of Square away, and make all sail,"
For we are homeward bound.

We crossed the line in thirty-five
And struck the nothe-east trades
In latitude something like eight,
Before the evening shades.
Then, all went well with all sails set
'Til Hatteras on our lee,
The wind backed round to nor-nor-west
And kicked up an awful sea.

A circle round the moon is seen,
The wind begins to blow;
All hands on deck!" the captain cries,
"All hands from down below!"
All hands from down below, brave boys,
Our goodly ship he guards,
"Jump up aloft! Damn lively, lads!
Send down topgallant yards!"

'Twas lower away, and shorten sail
And up the rigging bound
For royal and topgallant yards
We soon had lowered down.
We had the yards soon down on deck,
And ran before the gale,
Because the wind kept backing round,
As we were shortening sail.

Three days we drove her though the sea
And under bare poles we sailed,
With lightning flashes from above,
At times it rained and hailed.
We ran before the hurricane,
As east the wind did draw,
While six points off the lee port bow
Nantucket Isle we saw.

The wind did from the nothe-east blow
It tossed us up and down;
And scudding past Monomoy Point
Into Nantucket Sound.
Our captain cries, "Hurrah, my boys,
We plow the raging main.
We'll soon drop anchor in Edgartown
And see those girls again."

Now, into Oldtown* harbor
Our gallant ship we steer,
And every heart with vigor beats
To think of friends so dear.
Tonight around our flowing bowl
We'll drive dull care away,
And toast each blooming pretty lass
In dear America.

*Edgartown


from Chanteying Aboard American Ships, by Frederick Pease Harlow (1962, Barre Publishing - republished in 2004 by Mystic Seaport Museum), pp 219-222

tune: Old Nantucket Whaling Song


note from Joe: Edgartown is a small town on Martha's Vineyard, and island off Cape Cod in Massachusetts