Old Maui

Sometimes mistaken for a Stan Rogers original due to his popularizing it in 1979, this song is actually a traditional forebitter from the mid-19th century; its first written appearance is in the 1858 journal of a sailor aboard the Massachusetts-based Atkins Adams under the title "Rolling Down to Old Mohee."^[1] The lyrics are from the point of view of a ship's crew finishing a season of whaling in the northern Pacific and looking forward to a stop in Hawaii, possibly on the way back to the United States or Europe. The tune may be a variant on an 18th century song called "Miller of Dee"^[2] (also the origin of the tune for Lowlands Low).

This song appears as the sixth track on Written in Salt, and is one of the Longest Johns' more frequently sung songs.

Factoids

Due to its central location, Hawaii was a major resupplying point for American and European whalers bound for the northern Pacific. The whaling industry became the mainstay of Hawaii's economy throughout the mid-19th century, with several hundred ships per season stopping there at the industry's peak in the 1840s-50s.^[3]

The islands' tropical location and remoteness from both the toil of whaling and the responsibilities of home and family also lent them a certain reputation among sailors. One historian wrote,

"Cape Horn," the whorehouse district [of Honolulu], was so named because of the truism that the whalemen hung their consciences on the Horn on the voyage out and picked them up again on the way home. The district was known all over the world for its riotous debauches, and the whalemen accordingly felt called upon to go on their wildest sprees in Honolulu."^[4]

Kamchatka Sea likely refers to either the Sea of Okhotsk, which lies between the eastern Russian mainland and the Kamchatka peninsula, or the Bering Sea, lying east of the Kamchatka peninsula and separating Russia from North America; both were popular whaling destinations.^[5]^[6]

Sprung in reference to a wooden object, such as the mast of a ship, means "cracked".^[7]

Stun'sl is short for "studding sail", an extra sail on a square rigged vessel used in fair weather when there wasn't much wind. Bones in this line appears to originally have been "booms", which were wooden rods used to hold the sails. Some sources claim "bones" was sailors' slang at the time for booms and/or spars, but there doesn't seem to be much evidence to support this theory.^[8]

Lyrics

These lyrics are based on the version performed by the Longest Johns on their album, Written in Salt. The 1858 lyrics (among other versions) can be found here.

It's a damned tough life, full of toil and strife
We whalermen undergo
And we won't give a damn when the gales are done
How hard the winds did blow
For we're homeward bound from the Arctic grounds
With a good ship taut and free
And we won't give a damn when we drink our rum
With the girls of old Maui

Rolling down to old Maui, me boys
Rolling down to old Maui
We're homeward bound from the arctic grounds
Rolling down to old Maui

Once more we sail with the northerly gales
Through the ice and wind and rain
Them coconut fronds, them tropical shores
We soon shall see again
For six hellish months we've passed away
On the cold Kamchatka sea
But now we're bound from the arctic grounds
Rolling down to old Maui

{Chorus}

Once more we sail with the northerly gales
Towards our island home
Our whaling done, our mainmast sprung
And we ain't got far to roam
Our stuns'l bones is carried away
What care we for that sound?
A living gale is after us
Thank God we're homeward bound!

{Chorus}

How soft the breeze of the island trees
Now the ice is far astern
Them native maids, them tropical glades
Is awaiting our return
Even now their big brown eyes look out
Hoping some fine day to see
Our baggy sails running 'fore the gales
Rolling down to old Maui

{Chorus 2x}

Recordings

Streaming/Purchase

YouTube Videos

Gig Videos

Full Band Streams

Chill Streams

Roll on up to Chilltown with Andy and JD (30 Mar 2020)

Gaming Streams

↑ https://mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/rollingdowntooldmaui.html
↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_Down_to_Old_Maui#Origin
↑ https://keolamagazine.com/ocean/a-brief-history-of-whales-in-hawaii/
↑ https://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/SWMS027.html
↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_in_the_Sea_of_Okhotsk
↑ https://www.beringclimate.noaa.gov/essays_moore.html
↑ "sprung, adj.1 (and int.)." OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/187892. Accessed 29 August 2022.
↑ https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=94585#1833760

[1] ttps://mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/rollingdowntooldmaui.html

[2] ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_Down_to_Old_Maui#Origin

[3] ttps://keolamagazine.com/ocean/a-brief-history-of-whales-in-hawaii/

[4] ttps://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/SWMS027.html

[5] ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_in_the_Sea_of_Okhotsk

[6] ttps://www.beringclimate.noaa.gov/essays_moore.html

[7] "sprung, adj.1 (and int.)." OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/187892. Accessed 29 August 2022.

[8] ttps://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=94585#1833760

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