 sj |
||
|
||
| ||||||
|
Share
THE COLUMBIA (Fred Starner) Columbia was built of stout oak and good pine She was launched with a cheer and a cup of good wine Her canvas was graceful and stitched extra-strong It seemed that her builders could do her no wrong The crews of Columbia worked hard with hand-line And the dories were hoisted and the fish packed in brine She raced with the Bluenose, the pride of the fleet She showed them her stern on the windward beat And it's haul on the lines, it's a wrenching ache You pull your muscles till the cords seem to break And it's a-a-all on the sea Out fishing in August, the twenty-first day She went down in the gale; how, no one can say Old Wharton must have done all a captain can do But he went to the bottom with all of his crew Not many months later, on the first of the year A modern stern-dragger was a-working her gear A-dragging the bottom with nets strong as steel All hands felt a tremor which shivered her keel And it's haul on the lines, it's a wrenching ache You pull your muscles till the cords seem to break And it's a-a-all on the sea From the waters off Sable came a terrible sight The hull of a schooner rose in the spotlight Shorn of her rigging, her gaffs, and all stale The hull of Columbia rose ghostly and pale And then with a shudder and a yaw the nets broke But the hull of the schooner could not stay afloat Columbia sank back to her watery grave But the souls of her crewmen in memory were saved And it's haul on the lines, it's a wrenching ache You pull your muscles till the cords seem to break And it's a-a-all on the sea So ended their work on that cold winter's night When a modern stern-dragger found Columbia's death-site And I know that old Gloucester is changing fast But she'll never forget her brave sons of the past And it's haul on the lines, it's a wrenching ache You pull your muscles till the cords seem to break And it's a-a-all on the sea And it's a-a-all on the sea @sailor @ship @wreck filename[ COLUMBIA JN |
|
