Lyrics
(Canadian folk song)
Now ’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 or thirty miles southeast of Baccalieu.
Refrain
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. Refrain
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. Refrain
See also
- Country: Canada
- Subjects: ballads /Â sailing / whales
- Form: AB
- Harmony: chords I, IV, V
- Melody: tonic triad
- Meter: 4
- Scale: major
- Source: Canada’s Favourite Folksongs for Kids, Ralph Cruickshank, 1980
YouTube
- PDF of song with chords
- MIDI file
- Listen to the melody