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Jack was every inch a sailor,
He was born upon the bright blue sea.
'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.
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.
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.
[Bridge]
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.
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 it's about,
He caught the whale all by the tail and turned him inside out.
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.
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.
He was born upon the bright blue sea.
He was born upon the bright blue sea.
Boy, that's some Jack, best I ever saw, yea.
What a man, what a man, what a man.
This variant was arranged and recorded by The Sharecroppers (Home, Boys! trk#10, 2003, John Harvey Newman Publishing, Pasadena, NL, SOCAN)
See more songs by The Sharecroppers.
Liner note: A great sing-a-long song that tells a story every Newfoundlander knows!
The YouTube video above features a variant recorded for the Ryan's Fancy CBC television series with Fergus O'Byrne, Dermot O'Reilly and Phyllis Morrissey onboard the M.V. Bonavista on her final voyage down the coast of Labrador in 1986.
See more songs by Ryan's Fancy.
A variant was published in Gerald S. Doyle's Old-Time Songs And Poetry Of Newfoundland: Songs Of The People From The Days Of Our Forefathers (Second edition, p.13, 1940; Third edition, p.33, 1955). A variant was also published on p.4 of Songs Of Newfoundland, a complimentary booklet of lyrics to twenty-one songs distributed by the Bennett Brewing Co. Ltd., of St. John's, NL, with the cooperation of the Gerald S. Doyle Song Book from which the words were obtained.
