trad
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. I learned this from Bodega and Gallimaufry.
Chorus:
Greenland is a hell of a place, it’s a land that’s never green
Where there’s ice and snow and the whale fishes blow
And the daylight’s seldom seen, brave boys
And the daylight’s seldom seen
In Eighteen hundred and sixty-four on June the 13th day
Our gallant ship her anchor weighed
And for Greenland sailed away, brave boys
And for Greenland sailed away
Our lookout in the cross tree stood with a spyglass in his hand
“There’s a whale, there’s a whale, there’s a bloody great whale
And she blows on every span”
Well our captain he stood on the quarterdeck
The ice was in his eye “Overhaul, overhaul, let your davits tackles fall
And you’ll put your boats in the sea”
The harpoon struck and the line played out and she made a flourish with her tail
And the boat capsized and ten men were drowned
And we did not catch that whale
Now the losing of that hundred barrel whale, it grieves our captain sore
But the losing of those ten brave men,
It grieves me ten times more