The Greenland Whale Fisheries
~Traditional
‘Twas in eighteen hundred and fifty-three
And of June the thirteenth day,
That our gallant ship her anchor weighed,
And for greenland bore away, brave boys,
And for greenland bore away.
The lookout in the crosstrees stood
With spyglass in his hand;
There’s a whale, there’s a whale, there’s whalefish he cried
And she blows at every span, brave boys
She blows at every span.
The captain stood on the quarter deck,
And a fine little man was he;
“Overhaul, overhaul! Let your davit tackles fall,
And launch your boats for sea, brave boys
And launch your boats for sea.
Now the boats were launched and the men aboard,
And the whale was full in view.
Resolv-ed was each seaman bold
To steer where the whalefish blew, brave boys
To steer where the whalefish blew.
We stuck the whale the line paid out,
But she gave a flourish with her tail,
The boat capsized and four men were drowned,
And we never caught that whale, brave boys,
And we never caught that whale.
“To lose the whale,” our captain said,
It grieves my heart full sore,
But oh! to lose (those) four gallant men
It grieves me ten times more brave boys
It grieves me ten times more.
The winter star doth now appear,
So, boys we’ll anchor weight;
It’s time to leave this cold country
And homeward bear away, brave boys
And homeward bear away.
Oh Greenland is a dreadful place
A land that’s never green
Where there’s ice and snow, and the whalefishes blow
(and the) daylight’s seldom seen brave boys
But the daylight’s seldom seen.
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"Greenland Whale Fisheries" is a traditional sea song. This song originated in the West Indies. In most of the versions collected from oral sources, the song opens up giving a date for the events that it describes (usually between 1823 and 1853). However, the song is actually older than this and a form of it was published as a ballad before 1725.[1] It has been given a Roud number of 347.[2]
The song tells of a whaling expedition that leaves for Greenland. The lookout spots a "whalefish", and harpoon boats are launched. However, the whale strikes the boat with its tail, capsizing it, and several men are killed. The captain grieves over losing his men, but especially for having lost his prey. He then orders the ship to sail for home, calling Greenland a "dreadful place".
Like most traditional songs, "Greenland Whale Fisheries" exists in different versions.[3] Some change details (such as the date of the expedition), and others add or remove verses. Some modern versions, including the ones recorded by Judy Collins and Theodore Bikel, The Chad Mitchell Trio, and later by The Pogues, flip the captain's expression of grief to make him regret losing his catch even more than losing his crew.
In the version popularized by The Weavers and Peter, Paul and Mary, a shanty recorded by Alan Lomax from a Bahamian fisherman[4] is appended, which begins, "When the whale gets strike, and the line run down, and the whale makes a flounder with her tail, and the boat capsized, and we lost our darling man, No more, no more Greenland for you you, Pray Boys, No more, no more Greenland for you."...."[5]
Folk singer Paul Kaplan recorded a song with the same tune under the title "Call Me the Whale". Following a similar chronology, it tells the story from the whale's perspective.[6]
Covered by The Dubliners on their 1969 album At Home with The Dubliners, and on the B-Side of their 1965 single, "Roisin Dubh".
Covered by Ryan's Fancy on their 1971 album Dark Island.
Covered by The Longest Johns on their 2024 album Voyage.
In the Futurama episode "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz", Bender, in an ironic state of soberness, sings a snippet of the song.
The Greenland Whalefishers, a Celtic punk band from Norway, is named after the song.
References
- ^ R. Vaughan Williams & A.L. Lloyd (editors): The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, Penguin Books, 1959. p.115
- ^ "Vaughan Williams Memorial Library Roud 347 entry".
- ^ e.g. Vaughan Williams & Lloyd p.50. Version collected by Anne G. Gilchrist from the singing of W. Bolton, Southport, Lancashire, 1906
- ^ "Bahamas 1935: Chanteys & Anthems from Andros & Cat - Alan Lomax | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic". AllMusic.
- ^ Check-list of Recorded Songs in the English Language in the Archive of Folk Song, United States Work Projects Administration. District of Columbia - 1942,Page 435
- ^ Call Me the Whale Lyrics
Source: Mainly Norfolk
The Greenland Whale Fishery
[ Roud 347 ; Laws K21 ; G/D 1:9 ; Ballad Index LK21 ; trad.]The Greenland Whale Fishery is a song about the Spitsbergen right whale fishing in the 1720s. A version collected from W. Bolton, Southport, Lancashire in 1906 by Anne Gilchrist was printed in A.L. Lloyd and Vaughan Williams’ The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs (1959).A.L. Lloyd sang The Greenland Whale Fishery in 1956 on his, Ewan MacColl and Harry H. Corbett’s album The Singing Sailor. This recording was reissued on their albums Singing Sailors (Wattle Records, Australia) and Off to Sea Once More (Stinson Records, USA).
A.L. Lloyd also recorded this song for his and Ewan MacColl’s Riverside LP Thar She Blows! (where it was called Sperm Whale Fishery) and, for a third time, in 1967 for the album Leviathan! Ballads and Songs of the Whaling Trade. He commented in the latter album’s sleeve notes:
This is the oldest—and many think the best—of surviving songs of the whaling trade. It had already appeared on a broadside around 1725, very shortly after the South Sea Company decided to resuscitate the then moribund whaling industry, and sent a dozen fine large ships around Spitsbergen and the Greenland Sea. The song went on being sung with small changes all the time to bring it up to date. Our present version mentions the year 1834, the ship Lion, its captain Randolph. Other versions give other years, and name other ships and skippers (there was a whaler the Lion, out of Liverpool, but her captain’s name was Hawkins, and she was lost off Greenland in 1817). We may take it that the incident described in the song is not historical but imaginary, a stylisation like those thrilling engravings of whaling scenes that were once so popular. But the song’s pattern of departure, chase, and return home, was imitated in a large number of whaling ballads made subsequently. It is the ace and deuce of whale songs.
Ewan MacColl sang just three verses—5, 8 and 9—of The Greenland Whale Fishery in the musical score of the 1962 film Whaler Out of New Bedford.
Philip Hamon and Hilary Carre of Sark on the Channel Islands sang The Whale Fishery on the anthology Sailormen and Servingmaids (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 6; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1970).
The Watersons sang a concise six-verse version of The Greenland Whale Fishery in 1965 on their very first record, New Voices. This wonderful recording was included on the Topic sampler Sea Songs and Shanties and on the French compilation Chants de Marins IV: Ballads, Complaintes et Shanties des Matelots Anglais, reissued on the Watersons’ CD Early Days, included on the 1993 Topic sampler Blow the Man Down: Sea Songs and Shanties and in 2004 on the Watersons’ 4 CD anthology Mighty River of Song.
A.L. Lloyd commented in the New Voices sleeve notes:
How old is this song? In the Watersons’ version the date 1864 is given, which is thirty years too late for Greenland whaling, for by 1830 the Greenland grounds were fished out and the expeditions had transferred their attention to the seas of Baffin Bay. In any case, we know the song is very much older than it seems, for it was already in print as a broadside before 1725. The Dutch and English had opened up the Greenland grounds (where, by the way, they fished for right whales, not sperm whales) early in the sixteenth century so the song came into being some time between then and the opening years of the eighteenth. It remained a great favourite, being reprinted over and again by broadside publishers, and many versions of it have been collected from country singers during the present century. It’s one of the great sea songs.
Mike Waterson and Louis Killen sang The Greenland Whale Fishery in 1965 in the BBC TV documentary about the Watersons, Travelling for a Living.
The Pogues recorded Greenland Whale Fisheries in 1984 for their first album, Red Roses for Me, and Van Dyke Parks sang it in 2006 on Rogue’s Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys.
Jon Boden sang Greenland Whale Fishery as the August 4, 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day. He noted in the blog:
My first introduction to The Watersons was on a Topic LP Sea Songs and Shanties that I borrowed from Winchester library at a tender age. I had heard Norma sing on the first Waterson:Carthy album but was absolutely knocked out by the ferocity of the sound the three siblings and cousin John could produce. This was one of [four] Waterson tracks on the album.
This YouTube video shows the Exmouth Shanty Men singing Greenland Whale Fisheries at the Blackmoor Theatre Exmouth in November 2008:
Lyrics
| A.L. Lloyd sings The Greenland Whale Fishery | The Watersons sing The Greenland Whale Fishery |
|---|---|
| We may no longer stay ashore Since we’re so deep in debt. So off to Greenland we will steer Some money for to get, brave boys, Some money for to get. |
|
| It was eighteen hundred and thirty-four, On March the seventeenth day, That we hoist our colours to the top of the tree And for Greenland bore away, brave boys, For Greenland bore away |
They took us jolly sailor lads A-fishing for the whale. On the fourth day of August in 1864 Bound for Greenland we set sail. |
| John Randolph was our captain’s name, Our ship the “Lion” so bold. We had fifteen men and they were brave For to face the wind and cold, brave boys, To face the wind and cold |
|
| It was when we come to them icy grounds Our good ship for to moor. It was then that we wished ourselves back again With the pretty girls ashore, brave boys, With the pretty girls ashore |
|
| Our bosun he goes up aloft With a spyglass in his hand. “It’s a whale, a whale, oh a whale-fish,” he cries, “And he blows at every span, brave boys, And he blows at every span.” |
The lookout stood on the cross-trees high With a spyglass in his hand. “There’s a whale, there’s a whale, there’s a whale-fish,” he cried, “And she blows at every span.” |
| Our captain walked on the quarterdeck And the ice was in his eye “Overhaul, overhaul, let your davit tackle falls.” And we launch our boats all three, brave boys, We launch our boats all three. |
The captain stood on the quarterdeck, And a sod of a man was he. “Overhaul, overhaul, let your davit tackles fall.” And we’ll launch them boats to sea. |
| Well, every keel had its bold harpooner, It’s pikeaneer a steerer also, And four jolly tars for to pull at the oars. And a-whaling we did go, brave boys, Oh a-whaling we did go. |
|
| Well, our boats got down, and the men all in And the whale was full in view. Resolved, resolved, was them whalermen so bold To strike when the whale-fish blew, brave boys, To strike when the whale-fish blew. |
|
| Well, the harpoon struck, and down went the whale With a flourish of his tail. And by chance we lost two men overboard. No more Greenland for you, brave boys, And we never caught that whale. |
We struck that whale and the line played out But she gave a flurry with her tail. And the boat capsized, we lost seven of our men, And we never caught that whale. |
| When the captain heard of the loss of his men, It grieved his heart full sore. But when he heard of the loss of the whale, It was half-mast colours all, brave boys, It was half-mast colours all. |
Now the losing of seven fine seamen, It grieved the captain sore. But the losing of a bloody sperm whale Oh, it grieved him ten times more. |
| The winter star did now appear, And it’s time our anchor for to weigh, To stow below our running gear And from Greenland bear away, brave boys, From Greenland bear away. |
|
| Oh, that Greenland is a dreadful place, No longer can we stay. Now the cold winds blow and the whales do go And it’s seldom ever day, brave boys, It’s seldom ever day. |
Now, Greenland is a horrid place, Where our fisher lads have to go, Where the rose and the lily never bloom in spring; No there’s only ice and snow. |
Acknowledgements
The Watersons’ version was transcribed by Garry Gillard. A.L. Lloyd’s version is from the Leviathan! sleeve notes.
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