So Far From The Clyde - Mark Knopfler

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