A strong nor'wester's blowing, Bill;
Hark! don't ye hear it roar now?
Lord help 'em, how I read more

A strong nor'wester's blowing, Bill;
Hark! don't ye hear it roar now?
Lord help 'em, how I pities them
Unhappy folks on shore, now.

Like ships that have gone down at sea,
When heaven was all tranquillity.

Like ships that have gone down at sea,
When heaven was all tranquillity.

There's not a ship that sails the ocean,
But every climate, every soil,
Must bring its tribute, read more

There's not a ship that sails the ocean,
But every climate, every soil,
Must bring its tribute, great or small,
And help to build the wooden wall!

The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne,
Burned on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
read more

The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne,
Burned on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were lovesick with them; the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes.

She comes majestic with her swelling sails,
The gallant Ship: along her watery way,
Homeward she drives read more

She comes majestic with her swelling sails,
The gallant Ship: along her watery way,
Homeward she drives before the favouring gales;
Now flirting at their length the streamers play,
And now they ripple with the ruffling breeze.

Ships that sailed for sunny isles,
But never came to shore.

Ships that sailed for sunny isles,
But never came to shore.

When rats leave a sinking ship, where exactly do they think
they're going?

When rats leave a sinking ship, where exactly do they think
they're going?

Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being
drowned.

Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being
drowned.

And the wind plays on those great sonorous harps, the shrouds and
masts of ships.

And the wind plays on those great sonorous harps, the shrouds and
masts of ships.