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 with what's left of a stew
Her time is approaching The captain moves over The hangman steps in to do what he's paid for With the wind and the tide she goes proud ahead steaming and he drives her hard into the shore
so far from the Clyde together we'd 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 they all feel her keel shudder A shallow sea washes their hands
Later the captain shakes hands with the hangman and climbs slowly down to the oily wet ground Goes bowed 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 till there's only a stain on the sand
So far from the Clyde together we ride... we did ride so far from the Clyde together we ride... we did ride