OUT ON THE OLD TRAIL
(Ron Baxter)
Tune: Ross Campbell

Let go your stern line, heave on the back spring;
Single up for'ard and ring "Slow Astern".
Take in your head-line, wheel hard a'starboard;
The rudder's biting, now take off a turn.

Chorus:-
        'Cause we're out on the old trail,
        Out on the new trail,
        The land falls away with each turn of the screw.
        Six months or more now lies before us,
        We're out on the old trail that's always new.

Her bows are turning, at the tug's urging,
Away from the land, away from the quay.
Cast off the tug, and ring "Half Ahead" now,
Heading down river and out to the sea.

Over the bar now, dropping the pilot,
Make fast the anchor, ring "Full Away";
Set normal watches, the voyage has started,
But when we'll return, well, we cannot say.

Note (RJC):- The chorus says it all - for a working seaman, every voyage is at the same time a new adventure and the same old routine. Even if you've been on the same "run" a score of times, it's still a new trail; you never quite know what way the trip's going to turn out.

Ross