music midi CD - Bound Away
The Talcahuano Girls

Words traditional
Music traditional: "The Talcahuano Girls"

Oh, I've been a sea-cook and I've been a clipperman,
I can sing, I can dance, I can walk the jib-boom.
I can handle a harpoon and cut a fine figure
Whenever I get in the boat's standing room.

    And we'll rant and we'll roar like trueborn young whalerman,
    We'll rant and we'll roar on deck or below,
    Until we see bottom inside the two sinkers,
    And straight up the channel to Huasca we'll go.
I was in Talcahuano last year in a whaler,
I bought some gold brooches for the girls in the Bay.
I bought me a pipe and they called it a meerscum,
And it melted like butter on a hot shiny day.
    And we'll rant and we'll roar like trueborn young whalerman ...
I went to a dance one night in old Tumbez,
There was plenty of girls there as fine as you'd wish.
There was one pretty maiden a-chewing tobacco,
Just like a young kitten a-chewing fresh fish.
    And we'll rant and we'll roar like trueborn young whalerman ...
Here's health to the girls of old Talcahuano,
A health to the maidens of far-off Maui,
And let you be merry, don't be melancholy,
I can't marry youse all or in chokey I'd be.
    And we'll rant and we'll roar like trueborn young whalerman ...

"Talcahuano Girls" - Talcahuano, a port situated a little bit south from Valparaiso (Chile), provided whalers with rest and relaxation after the toils of many months’ voyages. No wonder that, while on sea, they kept recalling its attractions, especially the girls. The tune is a variant of a well known forebitter, “Spanish Ladies”.

"Dziewczyny z Talcahuano" is a Polish version of this song.

music midi CD - Bound Away