Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor

"Jack Was Every Inch A Sailor" is a traditional Newfoundland and Labrador folk song. It is a comical retelling of the Jonah tale, with a Newfoundland whaler as protagonist, but in this instance the whale gets his comeuppance.

It may have been adapted from a New York music-hall song "Every Inch a Sailor", which itself was a burlesque of "HMS Pinafore".

Lyrics

:'Twas twenty-five or thirty years since Jack first saw the light,:He came into this world of woe one dark and stormy night;:He was born on board his father's ship as she was lying to,:'Bout twenty-five of thirty miles southeast of Baccalieu.

:Oh, Jack was every inch a sailor,:Five and twenty years a whaler;:Jack was every inch a sailor,:He was born upon the bright blue sea.

:When Jack grew up to be a man he went to the Labrador,:He fished in Indian Harbour where his father fished before;:On his returning in the fog he met a heavy gale,:And Jack was swept into the sea and swallowed by a whale.

:Oh, Jack was every inch a sailor,:Five and twenty years a whaler;:Jack was every inch a sailor,:He was born upon the bright blue sea.

:Oh, the whale went straight for Baffin Bay, 'bout ninety knots an hour,:And every time he'd blow a spray he'd send it in a shower;:Oh, now, says Jack unto himself, I must see what he's about,:He caught the whale all by the tail and turned him inside out.

:Oh, Jack was every inch a sailor,:Five and twenty years a whaler;:Jack was every inch a sailor,:He was born upon the bright blue sea.

ee also

* List of Newfoundland songs