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Three Ships

[Mike Waterson]

Vocal trio Coope Boyes & Simpson sang Mike Waterson’s song Three Ships in 2002 on their album Twenty-Four Seven. After the last “official” track on this album Mike Waterson sings Three Ships himself, recorded from a telephone call to Jim Boyes. The album’s sleeve notes say

In Arctic waters, seas whipped up by winter gales can turn to ice immediately they land on the decks of fishing trawlers. Before the introduction of new technologies, this had to be chopped off with axes or vessels rapidly became top heavy and capsized. Forced to fish in extreme conditions in 1968, the Hull trawlers, the “St Romanus”, the “Kingston Peridot” and the “Ross Cleveland” sank within days of each other with the loss of fifty-eight lives. Three Ships, Mike Waterson’s superb memorial to the tragedy was originally written for the play The Northern Trawl, which—like Cold Coasts of Iceland—also dealt with the life and death of deep water fishing industry.

Lyrics

I saw three ships come sailing by
Come sailing by, come sailing by
And I saw three ships come sailing by
So early in the morning

And the masts and the spars were hung with crystal
Glittering crystal, ice-cold crystal
And the masts and the spars were hung with crystal
Early in the morning

And the crew were all paid off in silver
Glittering silver, ice-cold silver
And the crews were all paid off in silver
Early in the morning

And I wonder what’s the weight of gold
The weight of gold that a tongue can hold
To keep a story so untold of
Early in the morning

Acknowledgements

Transcribed by Reinhard Zierke. Very many thanks to Georgina Boyes for her corrections.