Folk and Traditional Song Lyrics:
Coast of Peru(2)

The Coast of Peru (2)

The Coast of Peru (2)

1.  Come all you young sailors who cruise round Cape Horn,
    Come all you young tars that follow the sperm,
    For our captain has told us, and we hope it is true,
    There are plenty of whales on the coast of Peru.
2.  Now we are a-sailing on the coast of Peru,
    As all good young whalermen have a right for to do
    Our ship she is steady, her quarters are manned
    And her rigging is ready, composed of four strands.

3.  'Twas early one morning just as the sun rose,
    A man from the masthead sung out, "There she blows!"
    "Where away?" cried our captain, "and how does she lay?"
    "Two points on our lee, sir, scarce three miles away!"

4.  "Then get my boats ready and make my boats fly,
    But one thing we dread of, keep clear of his eye,
    But one thing we dread of, keep clear of his eye,
    For well you all know that a whale is quite shy!"

5.  Now the whale has gone down, to the wind'ard he'll lay.
    Whatever he done, boys, he showed us fair play,
    But we fought him alongside and a lance we thrust in,
    And in less than an hour he rolled out his fin.

6.  We laid him alongside with many a loud shout,
    Began cutting in and then trying out,
    The whale is cut in, tried out and stowed down,
    He is better to us than five hundred poun'.

7.  Now our ship she is laden, for home we will steer,
    Where there's plenty of rum, boys, and plenty strong beer!
    We'll spend money freely with the pretty girls ashore,
    And when it's all gone we'll go whaling for more.

- from Doerflinger, Shantymen and Shantyboys.
JB