He spanned the wild Atlantic across and back again
and he knew the blue Pacific long before it had a name
from the great reef of Australia to the cold Cape Vincent Sound
and the barren Ocean trenches where the daylight’s never found
He saw the first explorers in their frail canoes and rafts
the Galleys then the Galleons he saw them sailing past
the Mayflower and the Beagle and the voyages that they made
and he saw the lofty clippers run before the Northern trades
Chorus
He roams the seas in freedom with no enemy but man
from the pack ice of Antarctica to the shores of far Japan
He swam the seas a million years before man left the shore
and when the factory ships are gone he’ll swim a million more
There’s a small boat on the ocean the black oars beat in time
there’s a young man standing in the bows a harpoon held up high
the cleats smoke as the lines run through the wounded whale dives
and the hunters have a choice to lose that Humpback or their lives
The beacon’s burning brightly the women watch in turn
the dark sky line for a sight or sign of the hunters safe return
They’re hoping there’ll be meat and oil enough to last the winter through
and they’re praying there will be no more widows left in grief and woe
And through a shrouding sea mist like something from a dream
I see the fleets of wooden whalers running under steam
with harpoon cannon in the bows and a steam winch standing by
they hunt all year off Greenland’s shore where the whale in hundreds die
But Greenland’s icy waters wont be tamed by fire or gun
and the men they die of cold and frostbite blinded by the sun
for the ships they split and splinter as the pack ice closes round
and you cant dig graves or carve the names on Greenland’s frozen ground
I can see a steel hulled nightmare come cruising into view
a massive floating factory powered by twin diesel screws
the radar and the sonar never leave a place to hide
and the high explosive harpoon heads make sure that non survive
Yet there’s oil to fuel your factories and gas to heat your towns
there’s coal if you’re prepared to go and dig it from the ground
you can get it without killing without risking good men’s lives
It’s a small drop in the ocean that Leviathan provides