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11 Mar 06 - 01:25 PM (#1690682) Subject: Lyr Add: SIX-HORSEPOWER COKER From: EBarnacle About 15 years ago, Gordon Bok gave me this song of Scammel's: THE SIX-HORSEPOWER COKER Ye fisherman free who go down to the sea With your engines of various makes, This old jump-spark of mine I will take every time. You can keep all your new make-and-breaks. She was lashed up with twine. There was bits of tarred line 'Round the timer to keep it in place. She hadn't much speed, 'cause the oil used to bleed Where the packin' was blown from the case. She was easy on fuel, but she kicked like a mule, For the screws in her bedding were slack. We all of us swore, when she'd rise from the floor, We feared that she'd never come back. So we lashed her with wire, and a motorcar tire. Oh, how we did labor and scote, And with posts on each side, we earnestly tried To keep her from leaving the boat. The old jump-spark of ours had miraculous powers. One summer she broke her pump band. Now, that cost quite a lot, so when she got hot, We cooled off that Coker by hand. One evenin' last fall, we set out on our trawl, For we knew it was going to blow. We turned to go in, in the teeth of the wind, With a cross-handed dory in tow. Well, Tom hove up the wheel and he cussed a good deal, And he cranked 'til he foundered his heart. He tested the oil and examined the coil But the Devil of it would she start. It was coming on night, and the seas feather white, When up to us rowed a small skiff, And a Bedlamer boy with a cast in his eye Kindly offered to give us a lift. Well, the kid stepped on board with the air of a lord, His movements unhurried and slow. He noted the string and the window-blind spring, But he got that old Coker to go. Go, go, he made that thing go. At first he just run her dead slow. She hadn't much speed, 'cause the gas wouldn't feed, But he got that old Coker to go. Just a poor homeless lad, he hadn't a dad, And his name you may never have heard, But he brought her about and he opened her out And she rose to the waves like a bird. [Break, exultant but still waltz rhythm] Go, go, he made that thing go. At first he just run her dead slow. So, we shipped on that kid, now we're glad that we did, For it's seldom we ask for a tow; And he gets a full share, which I think only fair, For getting that Coker to go. Go, go he makes that think go. How he does it, I'm sure I don't know; But can race with the Clyde, and keep alongside Since he got that old Coker to go. |
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11 Mar 06 - 03:04 PM (#1690734) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Scammel, 6 hp coker From: kendall Gordon told me that a "Bedlammer" is a very young seal. |