1st Verse: It’s a damn tough life full of toil and strife
Dm Am Dm
We whalermen undergo.
A Dm Am
And we don’t give a damn when the gale is stopped
A# Am Dm
How hard the winds did blow.
F C
For we’re homeward bound from the Arctic ground
Dm A
With a good ship, taut and free.
Dm A Dm A7
And we don’t give a damn when we drink our rum
Dm Am Dm
With the girls of Old Maui.
F C
Chorus: Rolling down to Old Maui, me boys
A# A
Rolling down to Old Maui.
Dm A Dm Am
We’re homeward bound from the Arctic ground,
Dm Am Dm
Rolling down to Old Maui.
Dm A Dm Am
2nd Verse: Once more we sail with a northerly gale
Dm Am Dm
Through the ice and wind and rain.
A Dm Am
Them coconut fronds, them tropical lands
A# Am Dm
We soon shall see again.
F C
Six hellish months have passed away
Dm A
On the cold Kamchatka Sea.
Dm A Dm A7
But now we’re bound from the Arctic ground
Dm Am Dm
Rolling down to Old Maui.
F C
Chorus: Rolling down to Old Maui, me boys
A# A
Rolling down to Old Maui.
Dm A Dm Am
We’re homeward bound from the Arctic ground,
Dm Am Dm
Rolling down to Old Maui.
Dm A Dm Am
3rd Verse: Once more we sail with a northerly gale
Dm Am Dm
Towards our island home.
A Dm Am
Our mainmast sprung, our whaling done,
A# Am Dm
And we ain’t got far to roam.
F C
Our stuns’l bones is carried away,
Dm A
What care we for that sound?
Dm A Dm A7
A living gale is after us,
Dm Am Dm
Thank God we’re homeward bound.
F C
Chorus: Rolling down to Old Maui, me boys
A# A
Rolling down to Old Maui.
Dm A Dm Am
We’re homeward bound from the Arctic ground,
Dm Am Dm
Rolling down to Old Maui.
Dm A Dm Am
4th Verse: How soft the breeze through the island trees,
Dm Am Dm
Now the ice is far astern.
A Dm Am
Them native maids, them tropical glades
A# Am Dm
Are a-waiting our return.
F C
Even now their big brown eyes look out
Dm A
Hoping some fine day to see
Dm A Dm A7
Our baggy sails runnin’ ‘fore the gales
Dm Am Dm
Rolling down to old Maui.
