Heave Away

In the Seamen’s Bethel
In eighteen forty-two
He said a prayer for his vessel
For the men in the crew

Manuel was a seaman
He couldn’t write or read
But he learned some English from the greenhand
Who sang the chantey

Heave away, heave away for the oil and the bone
CHORUS: Heave away, heave away for the rum and the women back home

From the port of New Bedford
All the way to Zanzibar
Manuel taught the greenhand
The rope, the rigging and the spar

How to row, how to sail
To tie a knot, tight and strong
In return the greenhand
Played his old accordion

- CHORUS –

A hundred feet above the deck
The lookout cried, “Thar she blows!”
Manuel and the greenhand
Side by side began to row

Eighteen men against the odds
A fifty ton leviathan
Just one line in the captain’s log
The whale killed the greenhand

- CHORUS-
In the Seamen’s Bethel
In eighteen forty-two
He said a prayer for his vessel
For the greenhand he knew