"The Wellerman" is a traditional sea shanty first published in New Zealand in 1971. The Wiggles' rendition of the song was first released as a YouTube video on March 29, 2021 and later released as a single later on June 21st that year. Another version of the song with vocals from Captain Feathersword was later featured on the ReWiggled album.
Lyrics[]
There once was a ship that put to sea
The name of the ship was the Billy o' Tea
The winds blew hard, her bow dipped down
Blow, my bully boys, blow (Huh!)
She had not been two weeks from shore
When down on her a right whale bore
The captain called all hands and swore
He'd take that whale in tow (Huh!)
Soon may the Wellerman come
To bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day, when the tonguing is done
We'll take our leave and go
Soon may the Wellerman come
To bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day, when the tonguing is done
We'll take our leave and go
Before the boat had hit the water
The whale's tail came up and caught her
All hands to the side, harpooned and fought her
When she dived down below (Huh!)
No line was cut, no whale was freed
The captain's mind was not on greed
But he belonged to the Whaleman's creed
She took that ship in tow (Huh!)
Soon may the Wellerman come
To bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day, when the tonguing is done
We'll take our leave and go
Soon may the Wellerman come
To bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day, when the tonguing is done
We'll take our leave and go
(Instrumental Break)
Soon may the Wellerman come
To bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day, when the tonguing is done
We'll take our leave and go
Soon may the Wellerman come
To bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day, when the tonguing is done
We'll take our leave and go
For forty days or even more
The line went slack then tight once more
All boats were lost, there were only four
And still that whale did go (Huh!)
As far as I've heard, the fight's still on
The line's not cut, and the whale's not gone
The Wellerman makes his regular call
To encourage the captain, crew and all (Huh!)
Soon may the Wellerman come
To bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day, when the tonguing is done
We'll take our leave and go
Soon may the Wellerman come
To bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day, when the tonguing is done
We'll take our leave and go
Song Credits[]
Trad. Arr. A. Field, L. Gillespie, A. Keller, D. Lindsay, S. Pryce, E. Watkins (Wiggly Tunes Pty Ltd)
Trivia[]
- Trumpeter Dominic Lindsay appeared in the video clip as a musician.
- The Henry the Octopus costume used in the video clip was made up of two separate costumes used in prior Wiggles projects: the head is recycled from Racing to the Rainbow while the body is recycled from videos and social media uploads posted around 2020 (the Fun and Games video, various TikTok videos, etc.)
- For the version of the song posted on YouTube and released as a single, all mention of rum was altered to mention "gum" instead to be more child friendly.