Tommy Makem The Day Of The Clipper
You can see the squares of canvas dancing over the
horizon
You can feel the chanty wailing to the heaving of the
men
You can feel the seas up to your knees and you know the
sea is rising
And you know the clipper's day has come again
To the men on high, the bosun's cry commands a killing
strain
Till every mother's son begins to pray
With a hearty shout, she comes about as she heads into
the rain
And the ship has never seen a better day
Chorus:
Sailing ships and sailing men will sail the open waters
Where the only thing that matters is the wind inside
the main
So all you loving mothers keep your eyes upon your
daughters
For the sails will mend their tatters and the masts
will rise again
Wooden beams and human dreams are all that makes her go
And the magic of the wind upon her sails
She'd rather fight the weather than the fishes down
below
God help us if the rigging ever fails
As the timber creaks, the captain speaks above the
vessel's groan
'Til every soul on board can hear the call
It's nothing but the singing of the ship inside her
bones
And this is when she like it best of all
Where the current goes, the clipper's nose is plowing
fields of green
Where fortune takes the crews, we wish them well
Where men could be when lost at sea is somewhere in
between
The regions of a heaven and a hell
Well, they're sailing eastern harbors and the
California shores
If you set your mind to see them them you can
As you count each mast go sailing past you prouder than
before
Then you'll know the clipper's day has come again
