Coast of Peru, The [Laws D26]

DESCRIPTION: (The captain promises the sailors that they will spot many whales off Peru.) A whaler spots a whale off the coast of Peru. The crew harpoons the whale and renders it. They look forward to seeing the girls at home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1832 (Journal of William Silver of the Bengal)
KEYWORDS: sea whale whaler return
FOUND IN: US(MA) New Zealand
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws D26, "The Coast of Peru"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 151-152, "The Coast of Peru" (1 text)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 2-4, "The Coast of Peru" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 27-28, "Captain Bunker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 194-195, "Coast of Peru" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 222-223, "Coast of Peru" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 194, "The Coast of Peru" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 185-186, "The Coast of Peru" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 91, "Coast of Peru" (1 text)
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 15-16, "New Zealand Whales" (1 text, 1 tune, localized to New Zealand instead of Peru but still clearly the same song)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 36, "(New Zealand Whales)" (1 text)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 15, "New Zealand Whales." (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 8 in the 1972 edition)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 12-13, "New Zealand Whales" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 617, CSTPERU*
ADDITIONAL: Alfred M. Williams, _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, pp. 33-35, "The Coast of Peru" (1 text)
Roud #1997
RECORDINGS:
A.L. Lloyd, "The Coast of Peru" (on Lloyd9)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blow Ye Winds in the Morning" (floating verses)
NOTES [156 words]: A.L. Lloyd notes that "Mention of the mate 'in the main chains' dates the song from before the 1840s." -PJS
The "Captain Bunker" version in Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang is much shorter than most versions of this song, and it doesn't mention the Coast of Peru. But the longer versions sometimes mention Captain Bunker; Roud lumps the two, and I very tentatively do the same. It may be that "Captain Bunker" is a broken-off version of "The Coast of Peru" that picked up some additional material.
The "New Zealand Whales" version is clearly this, although localized for New Zealand. It is one of the several songs allegedly collected by John Leebrick although we know of them only through the publications of Neil Colquhoun. (For background on this, see the notes to "Davy Lowston") The history behind it was the subject of an article by Frank Fyfe, first published in Maorilander, parts 1-4 (1970-1971); I have not seen it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LD26

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