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Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor

from Gulf of St. Lawrence by Crosscurrents Music

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about

Out in the Gulf after sunset at summer camp in Cape Breton, you could see the lights of ships bound down for Newfoundland. When we sang this song around the campfire in the 1970s, I vowed I’d go there someday. I did, too, and did my graduate work there. A band of us called “The Bonne Bay CFAs” (for “Come-From-Aways”) played this at the Deer Lake Folk Festival in 1986, and I’ve been singing it ever since.

lyrics

Now '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
Southeast of Baccalieu.

Chorus: 
Jack was ev'ry inch a sailor,
Five and twenty years a whaler, 
Jack was ev'ry 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. 

The whale went straight for Baffin's Bay,
About 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 must see what he's about," 
He caught the whale by the tail
And turned him inside out.

credits

from Gulf of St. Lawrence, released January 17, 2021
trad.

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Crosscurrents Music Boston, Massachusetts

Lynn Noel brings traditional song and heritage arts online to create community. Lynn has a voice of striking clarity and power, equally at home in rhythmic chanteys and flowing ballads.

Lynn is a respected song session leader on both sides of the Atlantic and the producer and host of the Mermaid's Tavern online folk club. She is currently Program Chair of the New England Folk Festival (NEFFA). ... more

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