The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #12574   Message #1304111
Posted By: Susanne (skw)
22-Oct-04 - 03:48 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Lament for the Hull Trawlers
Subject: Lyr Add: LAMENT FOR THE HULL TRAWLERS
A few days late, admittedly, but here they are. As you can see, there is one line in verse 4 that I need help with. George??? All my friends from Hull??? Please!

LAMENT FOR THE HULL TRAWLERS
(Ewan MacColl / Frankie Armstrong)

Mist hangs heavy over the land
Over the estuary
Shrouding the ships that move from the docks
Down the Humber to the sea
Bitter the winds and heavy the billows
And freezing the hail and rain
When three fishing trawlers sailed out on the tide
And never returned again

Off to the coast of Iceland they steered
In the first month of the year
When winter gales blow bitter and cold
And women must wait and fear
For no matter the storm, no matter the danger
The profits have got to be made
When the owners give orders the boats must go out
Though they sail to a fisherman's grave

For two weeks and more no signal was heard
From the Saint Romanus crew
At length the owners ordered a search
By the end of a week they knew
The Romanus was gone, the Peridow too
Lost in the cold Northern grounds
Pulled down by the ice on the rigging and deck
Forty brave seamen were drowned

The owners refused to meet with the wives
They said they weren't to blame
When the news came in of a third trawler lost
Ross Cleveland was her name
The cold Northern ice had captured and drowned her
The ice of the ord/Aud/odd(?) was her grave
Eighteen good trawlermen followed her down
Only the one man was saved

Mist hangs heavy over the land
Over the estuary
Shrouding the ships that move from the docks
Down the Humber to the sea
Cold roll the waves on the graves of the seamen
Warm flow the tears of their wives
But frozen the hearts of the men who have built
Their fortunes on fishermen's lives