Whaleman's Shipping List and Merchants' Transcript (New Bedford) (Jan. 9, 1872), p. 1:

"The following song was written on board a whale ship, some time ago, when nearly all of the Northern Whaling Fleet made the Port of Lahaina, Island of Maui, their rendevous [sic] in the Spring and Fall.             I have myself seen sixty-five ships lying at anchor at a time, their crews ashore on liberty, and enjoying themselves, as only seamen can, after a long and cold season in the Northern Seas. 'Mohee' is the original name of the Island given by Capt. Cook, and the early navigators:

                                     OLD MOHEE.

Once more we are waived by the Northern gales,
   We are bounding o'er the Main,
The pleasant shores of the Tropic Isles
   We soon shall see again.
Six sluggish moons have waxed and waned,
   Since from those isles sailed we;
But now we're bound from the Arctic Ground,
   Rolling down to old Mohee.

The Northern winds they do blow strong,
   Old Cape East rolls away,
Or sleeps in the mists which the moonbeams kissed,
   On the wide St. Lawrence Bay.
We have toiled away for many a day
   On the broad Kamskatka Sea,
But we'll think of that as we laugh and chat
   With the girls of Old Mohee.

Through many a blow of frost and snow,
   And bitter squalls of hail,
Where spars are bent and canvas rent,
   We have braved the Northern gale.
The hoary piles of the sea-girt isles
   That deck the Arctic Sea,
Are many, oh, many a league astern
   As we sailed to old Mohee.

We'll heave our lead where Alaska's head
   Looms up from its waste of snow,
Our masts and sails are covered with ice,
   Our decks are white below;
The Western gale on our weather beam,
   The trade winds on our lee,
It seemed that the blast as it whistled past,
   Brought tidings of Old Mohee.

And now we have reached our destined port,
   No more will we plow those seas;
Our cruise is done, our anchor down,
   Our ship swings in the breeze,
Our yards are square, our decks are clear,
   Now to the shore haste we,
And we'll laugh and sing till the wet groves ring
   On the Isle of Old Mohee.

An ample share of toil and care,
   We whalemen undergo,
But when 'tis o'er what care we more,
   How keen the blasts may blow;
We are homeward bound that joyful sound
   Our hope is soon to be,
We'll think of that as we laugh and chat
   With the girls of Old Mohee.

Now it's heartfelt joy without alloy,
   That fills each hopeful breast;
For dearer yet, yes, dearer yet,
    Is our home in the far wide West.
We will tread once more our native shore,
   The land of the brave and free,
And think when home how we used to roam
   In the groves of Old Mohee.


"East Cape" (now Cape Dezhnev) is the easternmost point of mainland Asia, northwest of the Diomede Islands.

"Alaska's head" may conceivably refer to Head Rock of the island of Adak in the Aleutians. The mainland of Alaska is far to the east, while the Rock is almost directly between East Cape and the Hawaiian Islands.