trad
From the 1850s when whaling vessels would hunt near Kamchatka in the summer and in the south Pacific in the winter.
Stan Rogers: Rolling Down to Old Maui
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he82w8JCMdI
It’s a damn tough life full of toil and strife we whalemen undergo, We don’t give a damn when the gale is done how hard the winds did blow. We’re homeward bound, from the Arctic with a good ship taut and free, We don’t give a damn when we drink our rum with the girls of old Maui. Chorus: Rolling down to old Maui, my 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 coconut fronds and them tropical lands we soon shall see again. Six hellish months have passed away in the cold Kamchatka sea But now we’re bound from the Arctic ground rolling down to old Maui. Once more we sail with the Northerly gale towards our Island home, Our mainmast sprung, our whaling done and we ain’t got far to roam. Our stuns’l booms is carried away, what care we for that sound, A living gale is after us, thank God we’re homeward bound How soft the breeze from the island trees now the ice is far astern, Them island maids, them tropical glades is awaiting our return. Even now their big, black eyes look out hoping some fine day to see, Our baggy sails running ‘fore the gales rolling down to old Maui.