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Rolling Down to Old Maui
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Old Maui
Rolling Down to Old Maui
[
Roud 2005
; Ballad Index SWMS027
; trad.]
This is a song about the ca. 1850 Kamchatka bowhead whale and Pacific sperm whale fishing. Gale Huntington in his book Songs the Whalemen Sang gives a version called Rolling Down to Old Mohee from a journal made aboard the Atkins Adams in 1858.
A.L. Lloyd, Trevor Lucas and Martyn Wyndham-Read sang two verses of Rolling Down to Old Maui on their 1967 Topic album of ballads and songs of the whaling trade, Leviathan!. Lloyd noted:
Maui is one of the Hawaiian islands. In the fifties and sixties, the Pacific whalers used to meet there, or in nearby Oahu, twice a year. In March they fitted out for the summer season in the Arctic, when they fished the bowhead grounds off Kamchatka and the Gulf on Anadyr. In November, when they were back again, to fit out for sperm-whaling in the tropical and subtropical waters of the Southern Seas. Hence this song, bidding farewell to the bitter North, and looking forward with a smile to the languors of the South.
Jeff Warner sang Rolling Down to Old Maui in 1976 on the Collector LP of songs and chanteys from the days of commercial sail, Steady As She Goes. The liner notes commented:
Stan Hugill of Liverpool says that as early as 1820 Maui, one of the Hawaiian Islands (then the Sandwich Islands), was considered “home” by the Yankee sailors who hunted the northern grounds or the Bering Straits for right and bowhead whales. This is an off-watch song, as distinct from a working song, of whalemen longing for the women and weather of better latitudes.
Bill Price sang Old Maui in 1978 on his Autogram album I Sing As I Please. He noted:
Whaling trips to the North Pacific might take up to three years for the whaling ships from the North Atlantic. Consequently temporary homes were set up on the islands near the Equator where the ships might be refitted and the sailors relax and entertain themselves.
Ian Robb and Hang the Piper sang Rolling Down to Old Maui in 1979 on their Folk-Legacy album Ian Robb and Hang the Piper. Ian noted:
I learned this song a few years ago from fellow ex-Londoner David Jones, and because of a rather poor tape-recorder and an even poorer memory, my rendering of it is a bit different from his (what ever happened to oral transmission?). Anyway, I hope the changes don’t detract from a fine song with one of the greatest choruses around.
Maui, now part of the state of Hawaii, was a favourite home base for whalers operating in the north Pacific and Bering Sea towards the end of the last century, and is mentioned, along with its women, in many whaling songs of that period.
Stan Rogers sang Rolling Down to Old Maui in April 1979 live at The Groaning Board, Toronto. This concert was released in the same year on his album Between the Breaks… Live!. He noted:
Emily Friedman introduced this song to me in her hotel room at the Mariposa Folk Festival in 1978, and I’ve loved it ever since. It may very well be my favourite chorus song.
John Bowden and Vic Shepherd sang Rolling Down to Old Maui on their 1982 album A Motty Down. They noted:
We learned this whaling song from Ian Robb, a fine singer, originally from St Albans, now living in Ottawa, with whom John used to sing while studying in Canada. As well as being a solo singer, Ian is also one of the Friends of Fiddlers’ Green, based in Toronto. Many whaling songs describe the hardship and dangers of the whalers’ lives, but we like the optimistic tone of this song as well as the great ‘singalong’ melody.
Jolly Jack recorded Rolling Down to Old Maui
in 1983 as title track for their eponymous Fellside album. This was also
included in 1999 on the same-named Fellside anthology CD
Rolling Down to Old Maui.
Paul Adams noted:
Our title track comes from Songs the Whalemen Sang by New Englander, Gale Huntington. Many young men working on the American whaling ships kept personal journals in which the recorded the voyage, made sketches, notes and copied their favourite songs. The words of this song were taken from such a journal made aboard the Atkins Adams in 1858. The noble tune is from Chantying Aboard American Ships by F.P. Harlow. Maui is one of the Hawaiian Islands and was a meeting place for whalers… something to look forward to between trips. A “homeward bound” feeling prevails after the arctic hunting season but it was likely that they were merely calling at Maui for “fitting out” for the further half year in the southern oceans.
Roy Harris sang Rolling Down to Old Maui in 1985 on his Fellside album Utter Simplicity.
Danny Spooner sang Rolling Down to Old Maui on his 1986 album I Got This One From… and he and Duncan Brown sang it on his 2006 CD of songs of the whaling industry, The Great Leviathan. He noted on the first album:
I got the first two verses of Rolling Down to Old Maui from a Norwegian seaman Bjani Ousbeck who I met on a whale chaser in the Weddell Sea. The third verse came from a wandering Drambuie drinker, Dave Alexander, who doubles as a good singer. A rousing song, it also tells of how the islands and the people of the Pacific were used by the likes of whalermen during the 18th and 19th centuries.
and in the second one’s:
The expanding of the Pacific whaling grounds after the mid 19th century meant longer voyages for European whale ships, and needless to say the sailors looked forward to the delights of tropical islands like Maui when their ships put in to provision or re-fit. Unfortunately, these men would often expect favours but give little in return (other than disease). There are at least four different versions of this and they are all good. I feel this one is an adaption of Huntington’s Songs the Whalemen Sang, and I learned it from Bert Lloyd when he was in Australia in the 1960s.
Chris Timson and Anne Gregson sang Rolling Down to Old Maui on their 1996 WildGoose album Peaceful Harbour. They noted:
From the singing of Stan Hugill. 395 ships, whalers most, harboured in the port of Lahaina in Maui during the year of 1846. Their hunting ground was the Sea of Okhotsk in the Arctic North. Maui with its tropical climate and friendly natives must have seemed line heaven on earth!
John Spiers and Jon Boden recorded Old Maui in 2005 for their album Songs and again in 2010/11 for their CD The Works. Jon Boden also sang it as the 23 August 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day. They noted on the first album:
A well known rowdy sea-song. This version comes from Songs the Whalemen Sang by Gale Huntington and is taken from the log-book of the American ship Atkins Adams from the year 1858. This is a rather sentimental and self-consciously literary version of the song, presumably collected before the aural tradition had had time to work its rough magic. Normally this would be “A Bad Thing” but we rather like it this way.
This video shows them at the Gosport and Fareham Festival on the Easter weekend in 2008:
Steve Turner sang Old Maui on his 2016 Tradition Bearers CD Spirit of the Game. He noted:
19th century whalermen used the port of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui as a place to refit and transship oil home after six months or so in the Bering sea or the Arctic. So it must have come as a blessed relief to spend three weeks here in spring before returning to their three of four year trip to the far north. The tune is The Bowery which was written in 1892, so this American version post dates the more well-known English version of the song.
Lizzy Hardingham sang Rolling Down to Old Maui on her 2020 EP of seven songs about the seven seas, Seven.
The Exmouth Shanty Man sang Rolling Down to Old Maui in 2022 on their WildGoose album Tall Ships and Tavern Tales. They noted:
The crew of a whaling vessel look forward to their return to the Hawaiian warmth of Maui after a season in the Kamchatka Sea (in the far north Pacific). It is probably related to a song collected from the 1858 log of the Atkins Adams.
Lyrics
Rolling Down to Old Mohee from the journal of the Atkins Adams, 1858
Once more we are waft by the northern gales bounding over the main
And now the hills of the tropic isles we soon shall see again
Five sluggish moons have waxed and waned since from the shore sailed we
𝄆 Now we are bound from the Arctic ground, rolling down to old Mohee 𝄇
Through many a blow of frost and snow and bitter squalls of hail
Our spars were bent and our canvas rent as we braved the northern gale
The horrid isles of ice cut tiles that deck the Arctic sea
𝄆 Are many, many leagues astern as we sail to old Mohee 𝄇
Through many a gale of snow and hail our good ship bore away
And in the midst of the moonbeam’s kiss we slept in St. Lawrence Bay
And many a day we whiled away in the bold Kamchatka Sea
𝄆 And we’ll think of that as we laugh and chat with the girls of old Mohee 𝄇
An ample share of toil and care we whalemen undergo
But when it’s over what care we how the bitter blast may blow
We are homeward bound that joyful sound and yet it may not be
𝄆 But we’ll think of that as we laugh and chat with the girls of old Mohee 𝄇
A.L. Lloyd, Trevor Lucas and Martyn Wyndham-Read sing Rolling Down to Old Maui
It’s an ample share of toil and care we whaleman undergo,
Through many a blow of frost and hail and bitter squalls of snow,
The horrid isles of ice cut tiles that deck the Polar sea.
But now we’re bound from the Arctic ground, rolling down to old Maui.
Once more we’re blown by the northern gales, and bounding o’er the main;
And the green hills of them tropical isles we soon shall see again.
Oh, it’s many a day we toiled away in that cold Kamchatka Sea,
And we’ll think of that as we laugh and chat with the girls of old Maui.
Jeff Warner sings Rolling Down to Old Maui
It’s a damn tough life full of toil and strife
we whalemen undergo,
We don’t give a damn when the gale is done
how hard the winds did blow.
We’re homeward bound, ’tis a grand ol’ sound
with a good ship taut and free,
We don’t give a damn when we drink our rum
with the girls of old Maui.
Chorus (after each verse):
Rolling down to old Maui, my boys
Rolling down to old Maui
We’re homeward bound from the Arctic ground
Rolling down to old Maui
Once more we sail with a Northerly gale
through the ice, and wind, and rain,
And them coconut fronds and them tropical lands
we soon shall see again.
Six hellish months have passed away
in the cold Kamchatka sea
But now we’re bound from the Arctic ground
rolling down to old Maui.
Once more we sail with the Northerly gale
towards our Island home,
Our mainmast sprung and our whaling done
and we ain’t got far to roam.
Our stuns’l booms is carried away,
what care we for that sound,
A living gale is after us,
thank God we’re homeward bound
How soft the breeze from the island trees
now the ice is far astern,
And them native maids and them island glades
is awaiting our return.
Even now their big, black eyes look out
hoping some fine day to see,
Our baggy sails running ’fore the gales
rolling down to old Maui.
Danny Spooner sings Rolling Down to Old Maui
It’s an ample share of toil and care we whaler-men undergo,
Through many the blow of frost and hale and bitter squalls of snow;
Those horrid isles of ice-capped tiles that deck the Polar Sea.
But now we’re bound from the Arctic Grounds rolling down to Old Maui.
Once more we’re blown by the northern gales and bounding o’er the main,
And the green hills of these tropical isles we soon shall see again.
Though for many a day we’ve toiled away in the cold Kamchatka Sea,
We will think of that as we laugh and chat with the girls of old Maui.
Our stun’s’l booms are carried away, our main-mast it is sprung,
And a howling gale is after us, thank Christ our whaling’s done,
Even now those big-brown eyes look out and scan the raging sea
For our tattered sails running ’fore the gale, rolling down to old Maui.
Spiers & Boden sing Rolling Down to Old Maui
Once more we are waft by the northern gales a-bounding over the main
And soon the hills of the tropic isles we all shall see again;
Five sluggish moons have waxed and waned since from the shore sailed we
And now we are bound from the Arctic ground, rolling down to old Maui.
Through many a gale of frost and hail our big ship bore away
And in the midst of a moonbeam’s kiss we slept at St. Lawrence Bay;
And many is the day we whiled away on the bold Kamchatka Sea
But now we are bound from the Arctic ground, rolling down to old Maui.
Chorus (after each verse):
Rolling down to old Maui, my boys
Rolling down to old Maui
We’re homeward bound from the Arctic ground
Rolling down to old Maui
Through many a blow of frost and snow and bitter squalls of hail
Our spars were bent and our canvas rent as we braved the northern gale.
The cruel isles of ice-capped tiles that deck the Arctic sea
Are many, many leagues astern as we sail to old Maui.
An ample share of toil and care we whalemen undergo,
But when it’s over, what care we how the bitter the blast may blow?
We’re homeward bound, that joyful sound across the Arctic sea,
We’re homeward bound from the Arctic ground, rolling down to old Maui.
Acknowledgements
A.L. Lloyd’s lyrics were taken from the Leviathan! sleeve notes.