traditional
There’s a
noble fleet of whalers, a sailing from Dundee
Manned by British
sailors, to take them o'er the
sea,
On a western
ocean passage, we started on the trip
And we flew a long like a song in our
gallant whaling
ship.
CHORUS
Fore the wind was on her
quarter and the engines working free,
There’s not another
whaler that sailed the Arctic Sea
Can beat the
Old Polina you need not try my sons
For we
challenged all, both great and small from Dundee to St. John’s.
'Twas the second Sunday morning, just after leaving
port,
We met a heavy Sou'West
gale that washed away our boat
It washed away our
quarterdeck, our
stanchions just as well
And so we set the whole "she-bang" a-floating in the gale.
chorus
Art Jackson set his
canvas, Fairweather got up stream
And Captain Guy, the
daring boy came
plunging through the stream
And Mullins in the "husky" tried to beat the
blooming lot
But to beat the
Old Polina was something he could not.
chorus
There’s the noble
Terra Nova, a
model without doubt
The
Artic and
Aurora they talk so much about,
Art Jackman’s model mail boat, the
terror of the sea,
Tried to beat the
Old Polina on a
passage from Dundee.
chorus
And now we’re back in old St. John’s, where
rum is very cheap
So we’ll drink a health to Capt. Guy who brought us o'er the deep,
A health to all our
sweethearts and to our wives so
fair,
Not another ship could make the trip with the
Polina I
declare.
chorus
Interesting. That's what's fun about folk songs!
I just heard recently that the name of the ship/song used to be "Old Baleen" or "Old Baleena," in reference to its role as a whaling ship. Apparently the name, either of the ship or the song, or both, changed over time into "Polina." Whether the ship or the song's name, or both, folk music changes as often/easily/rapidly as language--perhaps even more so.
Well, you weren't around, see, and the darn thing was becoming such a pesky earworm that I decided to dump it on my fellow Wordies. Aren't I nice?
Thanks for catching the typo. That'll show me to copy lyrics directly from a band's website. :-/
You jerk!
Oh well, at least it's out there now. :)
Also... you might wanna check the spelling of Arctic...