I done my level best to whomever's concerned
For children of wailer's, we all take a turn
Now we lie in our oars boat, us six men at sea
And travel for home with rations for three
Two ounces fresh water and hardtack a day
But we'll see Nantucket again
Forty days and forty nights, we followed the wind
In the southern Pacific, many miles from land
The first mate of Essex and few crew with me
Our captain, George Pollard, is lost at the sea
And I look to the East and see nothing but blue
So what can us starving men do?
But sing, sing, we're on our way home
Across the Pacific and through the unknown
With God as our shepherd, then no harm shall pass
We'll be in Nantucket at last
But, oh, how this skin of blistered leather pulls tight on our skulls
As rations all dwindle away
And, oh, how our dreams every night of our stomachs so full
But awake to find water to last two more days
Our spirits all broken, our minds are all crazed
And, oh, how I'd kill for just one more good meal
But home's a little farther away
So sing, sing, we're on our way home
Across the Pacific and through the unknown
With God as our shepherd, then no harm shall pass
We'll be in Nantucket at last
But, oh, when I look at my crewmen, I see them looking back at me
Humanity gone from their eyes
Once we were men of our god and brothers at sea
Those times weren't so long ago, but how quick they pass
Was once death a stranger, now approaching us fast
But we are Nantucket, the proud and the strong
For Nantucket, we must travel on
But, oh, how these hunger pangs drive all the thoughts in my brain
And body dries up in the sun
Oh, 'cause it's meat and fresh water that the six of us crave
So six bits of paper are tossed in the cap
And six men reach in, and each pull out a scrap
And one man of six with the unlucky draw
Is one man to help feed us all