What ABOUT That Whale, Exactly?

Seafaring long has been a keen interest of mine -- mysteries, shipping disasters, exploration, feats of endurance, fishing, travel. I love nautical ballads as well as literature. A favorite ballad is the traditional “Greenland Whale Fisheries,” about the whale winning the duel with the harpooners. The anticlimactic verse is the captain’s lament over the loss. I’ve always sung the version I first learned, which has been performed and recorded with slight variations by many American and British Isles musicians:

“To lose that whalefish,” the captain cried, “it grieves me heart full sore,
“But to lose four of me gallant men, it grieves me ten times more. . .”

Then I encountered a version by a topical-minded British group who chose to cast the captain in a condemning light:

“The losing of my gallant men, it grieves my heart full sore,
“But the losing of that jolly sperm whale, oh, it grieves me ten times more.”

What a difference a little transposition of lines makes. I’m not sure which version (if either) projects the original spin on the situation. It’s apparent, however, that somewhere along the way -- to paraphrase a saying -- someone has stopped storytellin’ and gone to politickin’.