Paroles et musique traditionnelles

It's a damn tough life full of toil and strife

We whalemen undergo.

And we don't give a damn when the day is done

How hard the winds did blow.

For we're homeward bound from the Arctic ground

With a good ship, taut and free

And we don't give a damn when we drink our rum

With the girls of Old Maui.

Refrain

Rolling down to Old Maui, me 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.

Them native maids, them tropical glades,

We soon shall see again.

Six hellish months have passed away

One the cold Kamchatka Sea,

But now we're bound from the Arctic ground

Rolling down to Old Maui.

Refrain

Once more we sail with a northerly gale

Towards our island home.

Our mainmast sprung, our whaling done,

And we ain't go far to roam.

Our stuns'l bones is carried away

What care we for that sound?

A living gale is after us,

Thank God we're homeward bound.

Refrain

How soft the breeze through the island trees,

Now the ice is far astern.

Them native maids, them tropical glades

Is a-waiting our return.

Even now their soft brown eyes look out

Hoping some fine day to see

Our baggy sails runnin' 'fore the gales

Rolling down to Old Maui.