A Year with a Whaler

by Walter Noble Burns

Then Gabriel would sing:

"Whiskey killed my poor old dad,
Whiskey drove my mother mad,
Whiskey caused me much abuse,
Whiskey put me in the calaboose,
Whiskey fills a man with care,
Whiskey makes a man a bear."

And the men would come through with the refrain:

"Whiskey, Johnny.
I drink whiskey when I can.
O whiskey for the Johnnies."

At the end of our song which ran through verses enough to bring a blanket piece of blubber swinging inboard, we would look wistfully toward the quarter-deck and wonder if the "old man" would take our musical hint.

Or Gabriel would start up "Rolling Rio":

"I'll sing you a song of the fish of the sea."

The men would thunder:

"Rolling Rio."

Gabriel would continue: