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| Gale Huntington's Songs the Whaleman Sang has a song Rolling Down to Old Mohee which was taken from the 1858 log of the ship Atkins Adams out of New Bedford. It appeared earlier in Joanna Colcord's Songs of American Sailormen (1938), but Colcord could not find a tune for it. Huntington found a tune for the words in Frederick Harlow's Chanteying Aboard American Ships (1962).
The words are clearly related to the Huntington version. As with many shanties and folksongs, it is possible the words were sung to various tunes or they had an earlier common source. |
It's a damn tough life full of toil and strife We whalemen undergo. And we don't give a damn when the day is done How hard the winds did blow. For 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 Through the ice and wind and rain. Them native maids, them tropical glades, We soon shall see again. Six hellish months have passed away One 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 Towards our island home. Our mainmast sprung, our whaling done, And we ain't go far to roam. Our stuns'l bones is 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 soft 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. |
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Charles Wingate |
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