Joli rouge

'Twas late '65 at the old Wallsea Yard

She was commissioned to haul the black tar

Built the Northumbria there on the bar

Roll Northumbria, roll

For when the Egyptians they closed the Red Sea

A call came on high from the powers that be

To build a royal monster right down the key

Roll Northumbria roll, me boys

Roll Northumbria, roll

Carpathia

Vengeance

Celestial call

She was the tanker to outsize 'em all

From the banks of the Mersey

To the port of Hulal

Roll Northumbria, roll

And fair princess Anne threw a bottle of wine

And watched as the giant set down in the Tyne

What lay ahead could no mortal divine

Roll Northumbria roll, me boys

Roll Northumbria, roll

And it's one for the hot sun above

Two for the empire we love

And it's three for the fire that burns down below

Roll on Northumbria

Roll Northumbria, roll

And it's one for the hot sun above

Two for the empire we love

And it's three for the fire that burns down below

Roll on Northumbria

Roll Northumbria, roll

So come all you good workman

Beware the command

It comes down on high from the desk of a man

Who's never held steel or torch in his hands

Roll Northumbria, roll

For atop a wild breaker the cracks in her frame

Spilled her black guts all across the wild main

She limped away through an ocean of flame

Roll Northumbria roll, me boys

Roll Northumbria, roll

And it's one for the hot sun above

Two for the empire we love

And it's three for the fire that burns down below

Roll on Northumbria

Roll Northumbria, roll