Robert MacKenzie - Paul Gross

32 men on a Great Lakes boat

Quit the pier at Thunder Bay

28,000 tons of coal

On a cold November day

800 feet and 10 more long

80 feet across

The steel mills of Detroit

Our destination through the frost

At 2 AM on the 2nd

Waves were runnin' up to 40 feet

Winds were blowing 60 miles

Our engines crankin' heat

At 3:13 we took a wave

Our wheelhouse left behind

The radar slipped beneath the waves

And we were runnin' blind

Hear me call across the waves

If I don’t come home tonight

I will make it home some day

(Steel boats and iron men)

32 down on the Robert Mackenzie

(Steel boats and iron men)

32 down on the Robert Mackenzie

(Steel boats and iron men)

32 down on the Robert Mackenzie

A captain name of Phillips

Seekin' shelter from the storm

Turned us south of Bete Grise Bay

By way of Keewenaw point

But the wind was blowing at such a rate

We ended up driftin' north

A wave broke over a knife of rock

Six Fathom Shoal

Mackenzie she was cut in half

The stern she ram the baow

The men were calling metalljunk

Flames burned out of hell

Stern keept runnig on lights of blades

Not one man would be found

Captain’s last transmission read

32 men down

32 men down

Hear me call across the waves

If I don’t come home tonight

I will make it home someday

(Steel boats and iron men)

32 down on the Robert Mackenzie

(Steel boats and iron men)

32 down on the Robert Mackenzie

(Steel boats and iron men)

32 down on the Robert Mackenzie

Down Down Down Down Down Down Down Down

And they call across the waves

If I don’t come home tonight

I will make it home someday

Yes, I call across the waves

If i don’t come home tonight

I will make it home some day