Mark Knopfler So Far From The Clyde Lyrics

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 the stew

Her 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'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 shatter
A shallow see 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
to the graveyard and back to the town

so far from the Clyde
together we'd 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 the bloody shoreline

Stripped of her pillars
her stays and her stantions
When there's only her bones
on the wet, poison land
steel ropes will drag her with winches and engines
'til there's only a stain on the sand

So far from the Clyde
together we'd ride
we did ride
So far from the Clyde
together we'd ride
we did ride