Old Maui
A traditional sea song It expresses the anticipation of the crew of a whaling vessel of its return to Maui after a season of whaling in the Kamatchka sea
It’s a damn tough life, full of toil and strife
We whalermen undergo
And we won’t give a damn when the gale is done
How hard the winds do blow
‘Cause we’re homeward-bound from the Arctic ground
With a good ship taut and free
And we won’t give a damn when we drink our rum
With the girls of Old Maui
[chorus]
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
Through many a gale of frost and hail
Our big ship bore away
And in the midst of a moonbeam’s kiss
We slept at St. Lawrence Bay
And many’s the day we whiled away
On the bold Kamchatka Sea
But now we are bound from the Arctic ground
Rolling down to old Maui
[chorus]
Through many a blow of frost and snow
And bitter squalls of hail
Our spires were bent and our canvas rent
As we braved the northern gale
The cruel isles of ice-capped tiles
That deck the Arctic sea
Are many, many leagues astern
As we sail to old Maui
[chorus]
Once more we are waft by the northern gales
A-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
But now we are bound from the Arctic ground
Rolling down to old Maui
[chorus]