So Far From The Clyde

They had a last supper the day of the beaching

She's a dead ship sailing skeleton crew

The galley is empty, the stove pots are cooling

What's left of the stew?

The time is approaching, the captain moves over

The hangman steps in to do what he's paid for

With the wind down the tide she goes proud ahead, steaming

And he drives her hard into the shore

So far from the Clyde

Together we ride, we did ride

As if to a wave from her bows to her rudder

Bravely she rises to meet with the land

Under their feet you can feel her keel shudder

The shallow sea washes their hands

Later the captain shakes hands with the hangman

Climbs slowly down to the oily wet ground

Goes back to the car that has come here to take him

Through the graveyard and back to the town

So far from the Clyde

Together we ride, we did ride

They pull out her cables and hack off her hatches

Too poor to be wasteful with pity or time

They swarm on her carcass with torches and axes

Like a whale on a bloody shore line

Stripped of her pillars her stays and her stanchions

When there's only her bones on the wet poison land

Steel ropes will drag her with winches and engines

'Til it's only a stain on the sea

So far from the Clyde

Together we ride, we did ride

So far from the Clyde

Together we ride, we did ride