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Around the Wild Cape Horn
Ralph McTell
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๐ฌ๐ง English ยท Original
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I was born a land-bound farm boy and in New England raised
The rippling of the wheat fields, well they were my ocean waves
Each rise and fall, each cry and call, of the crows across the corn
Were seagulls swooping around the bow
Of the ship I dreamed I'd sail around Cape Horn
My deck was the dusty farmyard, my mast was the telegraph pole
The windblown whine in the telegraph
Wire, was the sound called in my soul
And it seemed to have been singing since the day that I was born
You're gonna take a trip on a sailing ship
All the way around the wild Cape Horn
Well, I found that ship in Hamburg and her name it was Peking
Our skipper's name was Jervis, well I never met a man like him
He pulled two men out from the sea, by the hair, in a raging storm
And he kept that grip on the sailing ship
All the way around the wild Cape Horn
Well, the cargo weighed five
Thousand tons, the ship three thousand more
An acre of sail was up aloft, some seventeen stories tall
And we had a pig and a scruffy dog and a turkey fed on corn
Willing hands to drive her on
All the way around the wild Cape Horn
Well, its four hours on and its four hours off
And you sleep in your wet clothes
The only dry thing on the ship is the cargo down below
Eleven thousand miles we sailed, nigh on one hundred dawns
Thirty two sails on a heaving ship
Hauling us around the wild Cape Horn
Seventeen days we were becalmed, then Friday the thirteenth
Sixty-eight great ships were lost in the storm of the century
We blew into the Atlantic on a sunlit sparkling morn
The turkey got sick, so we ate him quick
On the way around the wild Cape Horn
We lost two boys along the voyage, they got washed overboard
Silence from us down below, no one could put in words
Two empty bunks to mark the space, their two lives to mourn
Torn between all life and death
All the way around the wild Cape Horn
Well, she had us sort of hypnotized
No time to catch our breath
If you want to love your life, you have to flirt with death
Sail close to the harnessed wind and treat all risks with scorn
A farm boy and an unyoked team
Ploughed their way around the wild Cape Horn
Mountain waves like avalanches, crashed upon the decks
The screaming winds ripped ropes
And spars and tried to have us wrecked
But she rose and fell through foam
And swell, her sails all ripped and torn
Eight thousand tons, tossed like a cork
We made it 'round the wild Cape Horn
Well, she had us sort of hypnotized
No time to catch our breath
If you want to love your life, well you have to flirt with death
Sail close to the harnessed wind and treat all risks with scorn
A farm boy and an unyoked team
Ploughed their way around the wild Cape Horn
A farm boy and an unyoked team
Ploughed their way around the wild Cape Horn
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