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AMERICAN SEA SONGS. 33 |
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a place in American literature, even if there were no other interest in his work.
There is another whaling song, entitled The Coast of Peru, and undoubtedly the work of a forecastle poet, which is worth preserving, despite its homeliness, for its genuine flavor, and as a relic of the old days before steam whalers and bomb lances took so much of the romance out of the fishery.
THE COAST OF PERU.
Come, all ye bold sailors,
Who sail 'round Cape Horn, Come, all the bold whalers,
Who cruise 'round for sperm. The Captain has told us,
And I hope 't will prove true That there's plenty of sperm whales
Off the coast of Peru.
The first whale we saw
Near the close of the day. Our Captain came on deck,
And thus he did say : " Now all my bold sailors,
Pray be of good glee, For we '11 see him in the morning,
P'raps under our lee."
It was early next morning,
Just as the sun rose, The man at the mast-head
Called out, " There she blows ! " |
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