Lyrics as sung by Gordon McIntryre on "A Wench a Whale and a Pint of Good Ale" 1966

FAREWELL TO TARWATHIE
(as sung by Gordon McIntyre)

Farewell to Tarwathie, adieu Mormond Hill
And my fair home of Crimond I’ll bid ye farewell.
For we’re bound out for Greenland and ready to sail
In the hopes to find riches in hunting the whale.

Farewell to my comrades, for a while we must part
And likewise the dear lass that’s fair won my heart
For the cold coast of Greenland my love will not chill
And the longer my absence, more loving she’ll feel.

O our ship is well-rigged and is ready to sail
The crew they are anxious to follow the whale
Where the icebergs do float and the whalefishes go
And the seas and the ocean are covered wi’ snow.

The cold coast of Greenland is barren and bare
No seedtime or harvest is ever known there
And the birds here sing sweetly o’er mountain and dell
But there is nae a birdie to sing for the whale.

There’s no habitation for man to live there
And the king o’ that country is the fierce Greenland bear
And there’ll be no temptation to tarry long there
We’ll fill our ship’s barrels and homeward repair.