Old Polina

(album: Winners & Boozers - 2013)

There's a noble fleet of whalers, they're sailing from Dundee
Manned by British sailors that take them o'er the sea
On a western ocean passage, we started on the trip
We flew along just like a song on a gallant whaling ship
Was the second Sunday morning, just after leaving port
We met a heavy sou'west gale and washed away our boat
It washed away our quarterdeck, our stanchions just as well
And so we set the whole shabang a floating in the gale

For the wind was on our quarter, the engines working free
There's not another whaler that sails the Arctic Sea
Can beat the old Polina, you need not try my sons
We challenged all both great and small from Dundee to St John's

Art Jackman set his canvas, Fair Weather galloped steam
But Captain Guy the daring boy came plunging through the stream
And Mullins in the Husky tried to beat the bloody lot
But to beat the Old Polina was something he could not

For the wind was on our quarter, the engines working free
There's not another whaler that sails the Arctic Sea
Can beat the old Polina, you need not try my sons
We challenged all both great and small from Dundee to St John's

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

For the wind was on our quarter, the engines working free
There's not another whaler that sails the Arctic Sea
Can beat the old Polina, you need not try my sons
We challenged all both great and small from Dundee to St John's

Now we're back in old St. John's where rum is very cheap
We'll drink a health to Captain 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, the Polina I declare

For the wind was on our quarter, the engines working free
There's not another whaler that sails the Arctic Sea
Can beat the old Polina, you need not try my sons
We challenged all both great and small from Dundee to St John's

For the wind was on our quarter, the engines working free
There's not another whaler that sails the Arctic Sea
Can beat the old Polina, you need not try my sons
We challenged all both great and small from Dundee to St John's