Sea Shanty

Whaling sea shanty

The Dreadnoughts - Old Maui




Lyrics:
It's a damn tough life full of toil and strife
We whalermen undergo.
And we don't give a damn when the day is done
How hard the winds did blow.
Cause we're homeward bound from the Arctic ground
With a good ship, taut and free
And we don't give a damn when we drink our rum
With the girls of Old Maui.

Rolling down to Old Maui, me boys
Rolling down to Old Maui
We're homeward bound from the Arctic ground
Rolling down to Old Maui.

Once more we sail with a northerly gale
Towards our island home.
Our mainmast sprung, our whaling done,
And we ain't go far to roam.
Six hellish months we passed away
On the cold Kamchatka Sea,
But now we're bound from the Arctic ground
Rolling down to Old Maui.

Rolling down to Old Maui, me boys
Rolling down to Old Maui
We're homeward bound from the Arctic ground
Rolling down to Old Maui.

Once more we sail with a northerly gale
Through the ice and wind and rain.
Them coconut fronds, them tropical lands,
We soon shall see again.
Our stuns'l booms are carried away
What care we for that sound?
A living gale is after us,
Thank God we're homeward bound.

Rolling down to Old Maui, me boys
Rolling down to Old Maui
We're homeward bound from the Arctic ground
Rolling down to Old Maui.

How soft the breeze through the island trees,
Now the ice is far astern.
Them native maids, them tropical glades
Is a-waiting our return.
Even now their big brown eyes look out
Hoping some fine day to see
Our baggy sails runnin' 'fore the gales
Rolling down to old Maui.

Rolling down to Old Maui, me boys
Rolling down to Old Maui
We're homeward bound from the Arctic ground
Rolling down to Old Maui.

Rolling down to Old Maui, me boys
Rolling down to Old Maui
We're homeward bound from the Arctic ground
Rolling down to Old Maui.

An ode to whorin' and whalin'. The roots of this song go back to 1858 a few years after Moby Dick was written. I like how the ship is showing the strain of a hard sea in the arctic sea (with the "mainmast sprung" and the "stun'sail booms" carried away) and the crew just wants her to hold together til Maui. The ship is likely heavy-laden with barrels and barrels of whale oil.

Our stuns'l booms are carried away
A studding sail (studsail or stuns'l) used to increase the sail area of a square rig in light winds. Studding-Sail Boom- a spar rigged out for the purpose of setting a studding-sail, and taking its name from the sail it belongs to.


Our mainmast sprung - 'Sprung' means cracked

Living Gale - a heavy gale. The U.S. National Weather Service defines a gale as 34–47 knots. On the Beaufort Wind Scale, a 9: is a Strong Gale (47-54 mph) and 10: Storm/Whole Gale (55-63 mph).

Kamchatka Sea



Three year voyage of the whaler 'Roman' leaving New England 1868 until her sinking 1871. As you can see Maui/Hawaii was the main way-point between the south sea (where ships waited out the winter) and the north whaling grounds they hunted in the summer.


This interactive whaling map is here

The first American whalers arrived on Hawaii in 1819. Only a few years later a fleet of over 60 whaling ships dropped anchor off Hawaii to rest, repair, and resupply. By the 1860s the number of whaling ships porting in Hawaii reached 600+ and their sailors changed the island forever through commerce and disease.