Blow The Wind Westerly

Up jumps a crab with his crooked legs,
Saying, "You play the cribbage and I'll stick the pegs."
Singing, blow the wind westerly, let the wind blow,
By a gentle nor'wester how steady she goes.

Up jumps a dolphin with his chuckle-head,
He jumps up on deck saying, "Pull out the lead!"
Singing, blow the wind westerly, let the wind blow,
By a gentle nor'wester how steady she goes.

Up jumps a flounder so flat on the ground,
Saying, "Damn your old chocolate, mind how you sound."
Singing, blow the wind westerly, let the wind blow,
By a gentle nor'wester how steady she goes.

Up jumps a salmon so bright as the sun,
He jumped down between decks and fired off a gun.
Singing, blow the wind westerly, let the wind blow,
By a gentle nor'wester how steady she goes.

Up jumps a whale, the biggest of all,
He jumped up aloft and he's pawl after pawl.
Singing, blow the wind westerly, let the wind blow,
By a gentle nor'wester how steady she goes.

Up jumps a herring, the king of the sea,
He jumps up on deck saying, "Helms a-lee."
Singing, blow the wind westerly, let the wind blow,
By a gentle nor'wester how steady she goes.

Up jumps a shark with his big row of teeth,
He jumped up between decks and shook out the reefs.
Singing, blow the wind westerly, let the wind blow,
By a gentle nor'wester how steady she goes.

####.... Author unknown. Traditional capstan shanty ....####

Collected in 1959 from Mrs. Charlotte Decker of Parson's Pond, NL, by Ken Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 3, p.859, by The National Museum of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.

Kenneth Peacock noted that this popular sailor's song was often used as a capstan shanty. When the leader ran out of verses, new ones were often improvised on the spot by some of the sailors. A modern [1965] parallel would be the improvised blues choruses of various participants in a coffee-house jam session.