| Play/Download Music File John Renfro Davis |
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| Gale Huntington collected this song 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 Rolling Down to Old Maui. As with many shanties and folksongs, it is possible the words were sung to various tunes or they had an earlier common source. |
Once more we are waft by the northern gales Bounding over the main And now the hills of the tropic isles We soon shall see again Five sluggish moons have waxed and waned Since from the shore sailed we Now we are bound from the Arctic ground Rolling down to old Mohee Now we are bound from the Arctic ground Rolling down to old Mohee Through many a blow of frost and snow And bitter squalls of hail Our spars were bent and our canvas rent As we braved the northern gale The horrid isles of ice cut tiles That deck the Arctic sea Are many many leagues astern As we sail to old Mohee Are many many leagues astern As we sail to old Mohee Through many a gale of snow and hail Our good ship bore away And in the midst of the moonbeam's kiss We slept in St. Lawrence Bay And many a day we whiled away In the bold Kamchatka Sea And we'll think of that as we laugh and chat With the girls of old Mohee And we'll think of that as we laugh and chat With the girls of old Mohee An ample share of toil and care We whalmen undergo But when it's over what care we How the bitter blast may blow We are homeward bound that joyful sound And yet it may not be But we'll think of that as we laugh and chat With the girls of old Mohee But we'll think of that as we laugh and chat With the girls of old Mohee |
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| Lyrics and Music From
Songs the Whaleman Sang See Bibliography for full information. |
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