Song Ambassador
Thermopylae Club
Origin
England
Time Period
1870s or earlier
Song Type
Sea Song
Welcome to the 2024 Sea Song Showdown fundraiser. We’re singing our hearts out to raise money for our educational and interpretive programs at the Maritime Museum of BC!
To put the “fun” in “fundraiser”, we’re showcasing eight classic sea songs performed by maritime organizations in weekly matchups until 24 June; follow along on our blog and social media to see which sea song is this year’s favourite. All campaign proceeds go directly to support our programs, but you can let us know which sea song inspired your donation by voting each week.
The Thermopylae Club, a special-interest club that meets monthly at the Maritime Museum of BC, present this lively and comedic tale of a sailor and a whale called “Jack Was Ev’ry Inch a Sailor”. Although often related as a favourite Newfoundland folk song, an original version was written in 1878 by John Read, an English singer-songwriter.
The Lyrics
There are a few versions of this song. We’re using these lyrics, and keeping the Newfoundland references:
Chorus: 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
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 or thirty miles
South-east of Bacalieu
Chorus
When Jack grew up to be a man
He went to Labrador
He fished in the 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
The whale went straight for Baffin’s Bay
Bout ninety knots an hour
And every time he’d blow a spray
He’d send it in a shower
“O now”, says Jack unto himself
“I’ll see what he’s about”
He caught the whale all by the tale
And turned him inside out
Chorus
From the 2023 Victoria Harbour exhibit:
The Indigenous peoples of the coast have always harvested from the sea, but whaling as an industry didn’t begin in British Columbia until 1905, when the addition of new technologies allowed for a massive increase in the scale and profitability of the hunt.
The Consolidated Whaling Company was based out of the Inner Harbour and operated five Norwegian built whaling boats: Black, White, Green, Brown, and Blue, as well as Gray, the company tender. Four whaling stations were built on Vancouver Island where whaling vessels would bring their catch of blue, fin, humpback, sei, and sperm whales, to be processed into various grades of oil and dried and frozen meat.
Between 1905 and 1967, when most whaling ended in BC, the stations on the island processed around 25,000 whales, leading to devastating declines in the population of all species. Some species have since shown signs of some recovery while others have never rebounded.
Photo: Whaling vessel Brown, owned by the Consolidated Whaling Company. MMBC Archives 977.001.0003.
