Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor

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"Jack Was Every Inch A Sailor" is a traditional Newfoundland and Labrador folk song. It is a comical retelling of the Jonah tale, with a Newfoundland whaler as protagonist, but in this instance the whale gets his comeuppance.

It may have been adapted from a New York music-hall song "Every Inch a Sailor", which itself was a burlesque of "HMS Pinafore".

[edit] Lyrics

'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 of thirty miles southeast of Baccalieu.

Oh, Jack was every inch a sailor,

Five and twenty years a whaler;

Jack was every 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.

Oh, Jack was every inch a sailor,

Five and twenty years a whaler;

Jack was every inch a sailor,

He was born upon the bright blue sea.

Oh, the whale went straight for Baffin Bay, 'bout ninety knots an hour,

And every time he'd blow a spray he'd send it in a shower;

Oh, now, says Jack unto himself, I must see what he's about,

He caught the whale all by the tail and turned him inside out.

Oh, Jack was every inch a sailor,

Five and twenty years a whaler;

Jack was every inch a sailor,

He was born upon the bright blue sea.

[edit] See also

• List of Newfoundland songs