to the
NEWFIE BULLET'S
Traditional Songs of Newfoundland
Old Polina
There's a noble fleet of Whalers
A-sailing from Dundee
Manned by British Sailors to take them o'er the sea
On a western ocean passage
We started on the trip,
And we flew along, just like a song
In our gallant whaling ship.
Chorus
For the wind was on her quarter
And the engines working free
There's not another whaler
That sailed the Arctic Sea
Can beat the Old Polina
You need not try my sons
For we challenged all both great and small
From Dundee to St. John's.
'Twas the second Sunday morning
Just after leaving port
We met a heavy Southwest gale
That washed away our boat
It washed away our quarter deck
Our stanchions just as well
And so we set the whole "she-bang"
A-floating in the gale.
Chorus
Art Jackson set his canvas
Fairweather got up steam
And Captain Guy, the darling boy,
Came plunging through the steam.
And Mullins in the Husky tried
To beat the blooming lot
But to beat the "Old Polina"
Was something he could not.
Chorus
There's the noble "Terra Nova"
A model without doubt
The "Arctic" and "Aurora"
They talk so much about.
Art Jackman's model mail boat -
The terror of the sea,
Tried to beat the "Old Polina"
On a passage from Dundee.
Chorus
And now we're back in old St. John's
Where rum is very cheap,
So we'll drink a health to Capt. Guy
Who brought us o'er the deep
A health to all our sweethearts
And to our wives so fair
Not another ship could make the trip
With the Polina I declare.
Chorus
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