Greenland Whale Fisheries

"Greenland Whale Fisheries" is a traditional sea shanty. 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. [R. Vaughan Williams & A.L. Lloyd (editors): "The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs", Penguin Books, 1959. p.115]

The song tells of a whaling expedition that leaves for Greenland. The lookout spots a "whalefish", and harpoon boats are launched. However, the whale strikes the boat with its tail, capsizing it, and several men are killed. The captain grieves over losing his prey, but especially for having lost his men. He then orders the ship to sail for home, calling Greenland a "dreadful place."

Like most traditional songs, "Greenland Whale Fisheries" exists in different versions. [eg Vaughan Williams & Lloyd p.50. Version collected by Anne G. Gilchrist from the singing of W. Bolton, Southport, Lancashire, 1906] Some change details (such as the date of the expedition), and others add or remove verses. Perhaps due to the wide influence of "Moby-Dick", some modern versions, including the one recorded by The Pogues for their album "Red Roses for Me", flip the captain's expression of grief to make him regret losing his catch even more than losing his crew.

In the version popularized by The Weavers and Peter, Paul and Mary, a shanty recorded by Alan Lomax from a Barbadian fisherman is appended, which begins, "When the whale gets strike, and the line run down, and the whale makes a flunder with her tail..." [ Check-list of Recorded Songs in the English Language in the Archive of Folk Song, United States Work Projects Administration. District of Columbia - 1942,Page 435]

A stanza was also sung "un-drunkenly" by Bender the robot, in the Futurama episode "The Bird-Bot Of Ice-Catraz", as Bender grieved that his best friend Fry no longer respected him.

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