paroles: Gina Dunlap,  air: trad

We’re bound away upon the tide
Leaving our friends behind us
Haul anchor chains and slip away
To break the ties that bind us
Fast on the breeze to the Northern Seas
What fortunes guide a sailor
To earn a share of the oil and bone
‘Tis a hard life for a whaler

   We’re bound away upon the tide
   Leaving our friends behind us
   Haul anchor chains and slip away
   To break the ties that bind us

Through many dangers unforeseen
And bitter storms to try us
Cold icy winds and towering waves
The faintest star to guide us
When darkening skies around us close
Neath Greenland’s cliffs forsaken
Ten thousand miles away from home
And hearts are nearly breaking

   We’re bound away upon the tide
   Leaving our friends behind us
   Haul anchor chains and slip away
   To break the ties that bind us

And when at last we hear the cry
And all in wild commotion
The cutting blast and down she dives
In that dreary troubled ocean
And when that whale has breathed her last
And seabirds left to grieve her
We’ll hoist the sails and steer for home
And its leave her Johnny leave her

   We’re bound away upon the tide
   Leaving our friends behind us
   Haul anchor chains and slip away
   To break the ties that bind us