I found this jolly whaling song in Geoffrey Brace's Something to Sing not ever having heard of it before. It is a fine graphic account of all the main deeds required to hunting the whale. In this song, the whale gets the better of the puny attackers because six seamen are lost and the whale escapes despite being harpooned. The captain in this song was obviously one of the more brutal sort because their demise " ... grieved his heart full sore, but the losing of a hundred-barrel whale, oh, it grieved him ten times more."
"Whaling in Greenland" tells a very similar story as given in Greenland Whale Fishery but to a very different tune and a much kinder captain.

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Since writing the above in the late 1990's I have recently (August 2013) had the good fortune to have been invited to the 2nd Leserpromenade. There I sang this song on the Schulschiff Deutschland along with Fareweel to Tarwathie and Off to Sea Once More to provide a musical background to the reading of Moby Dick by Egbert Heiß. A most enjoyable occasion!

Lyrics