The Diamond
The Diamond • trad. Scots
This song probably dates from the mid-19th century, inspired by the hardy Scots who hunted the whale in the Davis Straits, between Greenland and Baffin Island. One of the ships toasted, the Resolution, was crushed in the ice in 1834, a common fate in these dangerous waters. The song dwells not on the hardships but on the joy of a full hold, and the departing sailors promise their tearful lasses that when they return they'll rip up the bedclothes in celebratory ardor.