A noble fleet of whalers

Went sailing from Dundee

Well manned by British sailors

To work upon the sea

On the western ocean passage

None with them can compare

For the greatest ship to make the trip

Is Balena I declare.

 

The wind is on the quarter

Her engine working free

There’s not another whaler

That sails out of Dundee

Can beat the old Balena

She needs no trial run

She challenged all

Both great and small

From Dundee to St. John.

 

It happened on a Tuesday

Three days out of Dundee

A gale took out the quarter-boat

And a couple of men you see

It took away our bulwark

Our stanchions and her rails

And left the old Balena boys

A-floating in the gale.

​

The wind is on the quarter

Her engine working free

There’s not another whaler

That sails out of Dundee

Can beat the old Balena

She needs no trial run

She challenged all

Both great and small

From Dundee to St. John.

 

Old Jackman cut his canvas

And nearly raised his steam

And Captain Jack with Erin boy

Was ploughing through the stream

The Noble Terra Nova

Her boiler nearly burst

But still there at the whaling grounds

Balena got there first.

​

The wind is on the quarter

Her engine working free

There’s not another whaler

That sails out of Dundee

Can beat the old Balena

She needs no trial run

She challenged all

Both great and small

From Dundee to St. John.

 

And now the season’s over

The ship’s half-full of oil

Our flying jib will point for home

Towards our native soil

And when that we have landed boys

Where rum is flowing cheap

We’ll drink 'em up

To the skipper’s health

For getting us o’er the deep.

​

The wind is on the quarter

Her engine working free

There’s not another whaler

That sails out of Dundee

Can beat the old Balena

She needs no trial run

She challenged all

Both great and small

From Dundee to St. John.