![]() Credit: SSPL via Getty ImagesĪnyone who has read Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), or was forced to read it at school, has learned that whale oil was as "rare as the milk of queens." They also learned that whalers could literally be driven mad or drowned in pursuit of their giant quarry, and that New Zealand - mentioned a dozen times in Melville's book - was one of the centers of this global trade. In short, there was money in them thar whales.Īn illustration for an 1845 book shows all the ways whale oil was used. Whale bone was a sturdy material that could be thinly sliced and was used in brushes, corsets and especially umbrellas, before steel was a thing. Whale oil was a foul-smelling thing, but its usefulness in lamps, candles, soap, food and industrial lubricants outweighed the odor. (New Zealand's original settlers, the Maori, generally used whales that had been washed ashore rather than hunting them.) Thus ended a horrific form of hunting that began in 1791, when British ships bringing convicts to Australia started harpooning whales near New Zealand on their way home. We only have it because a 1960s musician named Neil Colquhoun was in the habit of recording old folk tunes this was one he heard from a man in his 80s, who'd learned it from his uncle.Ĭolquhoun first published the song in 1965 by sheer coincidence, this was the same year New Zealand banned whaling. The song hails from New Zealand, likely some time in the 1830s. It's hard to believe, in our everything-is-archived world, that such a catchy tune as "Wellerman" might easily have been lost forever. ''South Sea Whale Fishery,' painted in 1836 - when the Wellerman company was most active. No wonder they wanted to take their leave and go. And as hilarious as "tonguing" sounds to us, it describes (Opens in a new tab) one of the worst jobs ever invented - stripping the blubber out of a rotting whale carcass. For example, the original singers' awaited "sugar and tea and rum" not because they loved candy, caffeine, and booze, but because they generally didn't get actual money: This was their pay packet. "Wellerman" reveals a harsh history of exploitation and cruelty, hiding in plain sight in the lyrics. We've spent months in isolation, yearning for the day when this ship of weirdness will reach the port of normalcy.īut at the risk of raining on the internet's fun, the cheeriness of the tune is deceptive. And shanties are perfect music for pandemic times (Opens in a new tab). Though musicologists will tell you it's technically a ballad, "Wellerman" fits our concept of a sea shanty as snugly as a cable-knit sweater. This jaunty 19th century earworm, sung so earnestly by a postman with a thick Scottish brogue (Opens in a new tab), is perfect for remixing with multiple layers (Opens in a new tab). ![]() It's easy to see why "Soon May the Wellerman Come" became TikTok's first viral hit of 2021.
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