Music Monday: The Hudson Whalers

Recorded in the summer of 1976 in Woodstock, NY Fifty Sail on Newburgh Bay: Hudson Valley Songs Old & New was released in October of that year. Designed to be a booster for the replica sloop Clearwater, as well as to tap into the national interest in history thanks to the bicentennial, the album includes a mixture of traditional songs and new songs. This album is a recording to songs relating to the Hudson River, which played a major role in the commercial life and early history of New York State, including the Revolutionary War. Folk singer Ed Renehan (born 1956), who was a member of the board of the Clearwater, sings and plays guitar along with Pete Seeger. William Gekle, who wrote the lyrics for five of the songs, also wrote the liner notes, which detail the context of each song and provide the lyrics.

“In the years between the end of the War for Independence and the War of 1812, British warships interfered with American ships on the high seas, sometimes seizing their cargoes or their crewmen. Among the ships most affected by this form of piracy were the whaling ships that sailed out of Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard and New Bedford. The Yankee skippers began to look for a new home port that would be safe from British interference and at the same time remain close to the primary market for oil. It wasn’t long before they decided that the Hudson River offered the security they were looking for, and before the end of the eighteenth century they had established themselves at the city of Hudson – almost 150 miles from the sea. Hudson Valley farmboys signed up for duty on the whalers and were soon hunting whales in every one of the seven seas. This is one of the best-known whaling ballads, sung as often on the Hudson as at Nantucket or New Bedford.” https://folkways-media.si.edu/liner_notes/folkways/FW05257.pdf

"THE HUDSON WHALERS" LYRICS
‘Tis advertised in Boston
New York and Buffalo
Five hundred brave Americans
A-Whaling for to go

Chorus: Blow ye winds in the morning
And blow ye winds, high-o!
Clear away your running gear
And blow, boys, blow!

They’ll take you down to Hudson town
That famous whaling port
They’ll had  you to those land sharks
To board and fit you out

Chorus: Blow ye winds in the morning
And blow ye winds, high-o!
Clear away your running gear
And blow, boys, blow!

They’ll tell you of those whaling ships
A-going in and out
And say you’ll take five hundred sperm
Before you’re six months out

Chorus: Blow ye winds in the morning
And blow ye winds, high-o!
Clear away your running gear
And blow, boys, blow!

Well now we’re out to sea, my boys
A wind comes on to blow
While half the watch is sick on deck
The other half below

Chorus: Blow ye winds in the morning
And blow ye winds, high-o!
Clear away your running gear
And blow, boys, blow!
 
The captain’s on the quarterdeck
A squintin’ at the sails
While up aloft the lookout cries
He sights a school of whales

Chorus: Blow ye winds in the morning
And blow ye winds, high-o!
Clear away your running gear
And blow, boys, blow!

Well lower away the boats, my boys
And after him we’ll travel
But if you get too near his fluke
He’ll kick you to the devil!

Chorus: Blow ye winds in the morning
And blow ye winds, high-o!
Clear away your running gear
And blow, boys, blow!

Now he’s finished off boys
We’ll tow him alongside,
It’s over with our blubber hooks
To rob him of his hide

Chorus: Blow ye winds in the morning
And blow ye winds, high-o!
Clear away your running gear
And blow, boys, blow!

Next comes the stowing down, my boys
Twill take both night and day
And you’ll have fifty cents apiece
On the 190th lay

Chorus: Blow ye winds in the morning
And blow ye winds, high-o!
Clear away your running gear
And blow, boys, blow!

Well now we’re homeward bound, my boys
And we are thorough our sailing
A winding glass around we’ll pass
And damn this blubber whaling.

Chorus: Blow ye winds in the morning
And blow ye winds, high-o!
Clear away your running gear
And blow, boys, blow!

Thanks to HRMM volunteer Mark Heller for sharing his knowledge of Hudson River music history for this series.

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