The Coast Of Peru

Here's an old sea shanty which I learned off of a tape entitled

"Steady as she Goes." It's a song about harpooning a whale, but I don't

condone that sort of thing, so please don't flame me. Enjoy.

THE COAST OF PERU (traditional)

Come all ye young fellows that's bound after sperm

Come all ye young fellows that's rounded the horn

Our captain has told us and I hope it'll prove true

There's plenty of sperm whale on the coast of Peru

We have weathered the horn and are now on Peru

We are all of one mind and endeavour to do

Our boats are all rigged and our mastheads all manned

Our rigging roped tight and our signals all planned

The next morning at daybreak at about five o' clock

the man at the masthead cried, "yonder she spouts!"

"Where away does she lay?" and the answer from aloft:

"Two points on our lead bow and about three miles off."

Now it's call up all hands and it's be of good cheer

Put your tubs in your boats, boys, keep your bow lines all clear

Now bend to your oars and make your boat fly

But one thing we dread of, keep clear of his eye

Now the first mate he struck him and the whale he did sound

And the captain pulled up and he tried to bend on

But the whale began to vomit and the blood for to spout

And in less than ten minutes, we had him thin out

Well, we towed him alongside and with many a shout

We soon cut him in and began to try out

Now the whale is all tried, and likewise stowed down

He's better to us, boys, than five hundred pounds

Here's a health to all whalermen, boys, drink it down do

Likewise to the Bengal and all our ship's crew

All you who want money, I would have you for to go

On the coast of Peru where the whale-fish do blow

Chris Hutson

hadeslimo@worldnet.att.net

"Prostitutes are a necessity: without them, men would assault respectable

women in the streets.."

-Napoleon Bonaparte