DIEGO'S BOLD SHORE
(Text: log of the Bark Midas, New Bedford, 1861. Tune: Joseph McGinnis)
Has a love of adventure a promise of gold
Or an ardent desire to roam
Ever tempt you far o'er the watery world
Away from your kindred and home
With a storm beaten captain free hearted and bold
And a score of brave fellows or two
Inured to the hardship of hunger and cold
A fearless and jolly good crew
Have you ever stood watch where Diego's bold shore
Looms up from the Antarctic wave
Where the snowy plumed albatross merrily soars
O'er many a mariner's grave
Have you heard the masthead'sman sing out there she blows
Seen the boats gaily leave the ship's side
Or the giant fish breach 'neath the harpooner's blows
Till the blue sea with crimson was died
Have you seen the foam when the mighty right whale
Thus boldly attacked in his lair
With a terrible blow of his ponderous tail
Sent the boat spinning up in the air
Or where the green isles of the evergreen glades
Are teeming with dainties so rare
Have you ever made love neath the coco's green shade
To the sweet sunny maids that dwell there
Let those who delight in the comforts of home
And the joys of a warm fireside
Who dream it a peril the ocean to roam
In the cots of their fathers abide
But not a day nearer we reckon our death
Though daily we sport o'er our graves
Nor sweeter they'll slumber beneath the green sod
Than we in the boisterous waves
Have you ever joined in the boisterous shout
Reaching far through the heaven's blue dome
When rich in the spoils you have purchased so dear
You have hoisted your topsails for home
Or when the dark hills of Columbia arose
From out the blue waves of the main
Have you ever relived the unspeakable joy
Of meeting with loved ones again
Text and tune from Gale Huntington's Songs the Whalemen Sang (1964, reprinted Dover, 1970). Punctuation as quoted. Huntington comments:
"This seems to have been one of the best loved of the traditional whalemen's songs. Joanna Colcord in Songs of American Sailormen has a version very similar to this except that it lacks the fourth stanza. It is her melody that I have used here."
Roud Folk Song Index number 2006.
A midi of the tune as quoted in Huntington will in time find its way to the Mudcat Midi Pages, and can for now be heard via the South Riding Folk Network site: