Whaling Tale Lyrics - Singles - Valley Of The Giants

The story is about a rock penguin 

It's a small penguin, not a king penguin 

You can see thousands of them breeding 

When the warm season starts 

And they only lay one egg at a time 

And if you take one away they'll lay another egg but no more 

But I want to tell this story really about 

One incident, one day it was a gray misty day 

With the wind blowing hard and there was a heavy smell running 

And a whale factory was pitching and yawing 

Not really a very good day to pick up the whales 

Over the stern of the factory ship 

There were one or two dead whales at the stern of the vessel 

And the whale catchers were coming in with their whales 

And in the distance you could see the icebergs 

Quite a number of them 

And the men were trying to get ready 

To pull the whales over the stern of the vessel 

There was a pack of killer whales around 

Which came tearing towards the factory ship 

And they tore chunks out of the whales 

And there were a number of men at the stern of the vessel 

With guns shooting at the killer whales 

The minute they hit a killer whale the rest of the pack went after him 

And tore him to pieces 

But let's get back to the story of the penguin 

I'd say there were about 6 or 7 whales 

Some of them blue, some of them fin at the stern of the vessel 

And there was that small rock penguin sitting on top of the whale back 

And as we were pulling up the whales one after another 

Over the stern of the vessel 

It was rather difficult with the heavy swell running 

The penguin hopped from one whale to another 

The killer whales were all around the dead whales 

They were tearing into them and the sea was red with blood 

And by that time there was a number of men 

From the whale factory coming astern and watching 

The penguin at the back of the whale 

And the men where shooting as fast as they could 

To stop the killer whale from getting, getting the penguin 

Which was sitting or trying to hold on to the back of the whale 

But as the whale was pulled up they'd shoot 

It was difficult for the winchman to regulate 

And he had to watch very carefully not to, with the swell of the vessel 

With the swell of the sea running and the vessel moving 

To stop the penguin from slipping off its back 

The chute was quite steep, it was about I would say, 30 degrees 

And the little penguin climbed close to the tail of the whale 

From which the whale was pulled up the chute 

And the men were all standing around and watching 

And hoping that that penguin would finally get up, get up on deck 

It took a long time to lift that last whale up 

If there was a swell the winchman up on top had to watch 

And be as careful as possible not to jerk and increase the movement 

So that the little penguin could stay on top 

We got him to the stern of the chute 

At the beginning of the chute and he got saved 

We kept on, we kept on slowly pulling 

And as we pulled the little penguin slowly but surely 

Went along the back of the whale from the tail 

Of from the tail to the middle of 

To the middle of the back 

But at that time the sea was running heavy 

And the movement at the stern was rather erratic 

Finally when we got him up about three quarters of the way 

I don't think there was a man working on the stern of the factory 

They were all watching and hoping too 

That the little penguin would get up on top 

As the killer whales were just waiting down below and just watching 

And the men were shooting and trying to kill these killer whales 

And therefore they were afraid 

That the little penguin might slip in the water 

Finally when we got it really all the way up 

Everybody started to breathe a sigh of relief 

But there was a heavy, heavy swell which came under the factory 

And rolled the whale on the side and the little penguin slipped off 

And as it went down the chute the killer whales got it 

Most of the men were not happy that day 

There were also there's millions of penguins 

That was one of the sights which they did not care to see again 

But that's the way in Antarctic, there's no give and take 

It's a hard, hard place to be in but, c'est la vie