Lyrics Great Big Sea

Great Big Sea

Old Polina

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 shebang

A-floatin' 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't 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

And 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 boys

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't 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't 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 of 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't beat the Old Polina

You need not try my sons

We challenged all both great and small

From Dundee to St John's