Something for the weekend. My late mother’s homeland, Newfoundland, has a lively musical heritage, and Jack Was Every Inch A Sailor is a fine example of the rollicking songs that the Newfies have produced.
‘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 of thirty miles southeast of Baccalieu.
CHORUS:
Oh, 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.
CHORUS
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.
CHORUS
My grandmother was from Newfoundland! Her maiden name was Warren.
Hooray for Newfoundland! I spent only a few weeks there, and want very much to return! What a great people — good and strong and hospitable! Canada is God’s second-favorite nation!
Newfoundland is a wonderful place with some of the most generous people on Earth.