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
Their 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 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 shudder
The shallow sea washes their hands
Later the captain shakes hands
With the hangman
And climbs slowly down to the oily wet ground
Goes back to the car that has
Come here to take him
Through the graveyard back to the town

So far from the Clyde together we 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 a bloody shoreline
Stripped of her pillars her
Stays and her stanchions
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 ride
We did ride

So far from the Clyde together we ride
We did ride