It's a damn tough life full of toil and strife
We whalermen undergo.
And we don't give a damn when the gale has stopped
How hard the wind did blow.
We're homeward bound it's a grand old sight
On a good ship, taut and free
And we don't give a damn when we drink our rum
With the girls on Old Maui.

(chorus)
Rolling down to Old Maui, my boys
Rolling down to Old Maui
We're homeward bound from the Arctic ground
Rolling down to Old Maui.

Once more we sail with a northerly gale
Through the ice and sleet and rain.
And them coconut fronds in them tropical lands,
We soon shall see again.
Six hellish months have passed away
On the cold Kamchatka Sea,
But now we're bound from the Arctic ground
Rolling down to Old Maui.

We will heave the lead where old Diamond Head
Looms up on old Oahu
Our masts and yards are sheaved with ice
Our decks are hid from view
The horrid tiles of the sea-cut ice
That deck the Arctic Sea
Are miles behind on the frozen wind
Since we steered for old Maui

How soft the breeze of the tropic seas,
Now the ice is far astern.
Them native maids, in them island glades
Are a-waiting our return.
Even now their soft brown eyes look out
Hoping some fine day to see
Our baggy sails running 'fore the gales
Rolling down to old Maui.

And now we sail with the northerly gale towards our island home
Our main mast sprung, our whaling done, and we ain’t got far to roam
Our stuns’l boom’s are carried away, what care we for that sound
A living gale is after us, thank God we’re homeward bound.

And now we're anchored in the bay
With the Kanakas all around
With chants and soft aloha oes
They greet us homeward bound.
And now ashore we'll have good fun
We'll paint them beaches red
Awaking in the arms of a wahine
With a big fat aching head.