Great whaling song about a real ship The Balaena. It was a new ship built after the golden age of sail with an engine and it was very efficient.
The Balaena Lyrics
[C] The noble fleet of whalers [F] went sailing from Dundee
[G7] Well-manned by British sailors [C] to work upon the sea
On the Western Ocean passage [F] none with them can compare
[G7] But the smartest ship to make the trip is [C] Balaena, I declare
[Chorus]
[C] Oh, the wind is on her quarter, [F] her engines working free
[G7] There’s not another whaler that [C] sails out of Dundee
Can beat the old Balaena, [F] she needs no trial run
[G7] And we challenged all, both great and small, [C] from Dundee to St John
It happenеd on a Tuesday, three days out of Dundee
The gale took off hеr quarter-boat and a couple of men, you see
It battered at her bulwarks, and her stanchions and her rails
And left the old Balaena, boys, a-frothing in the gale
Bold Jackman cut his canvas and he fairly raised his steam
And Captain Guy wit Erin Boy was ploughing through the stream
And the noble Terra Nova, her boilers nearly burst
And still at the old whaling grounds, Balaena got there first
And now the season’s over and the ship half-full of oil
Our flying jib boom points for home towards our native soil
And when that we have landed, boys, where the rum is very cheap
We’ll drink success to the skippers’s health for getting us over the deep