Molly May

 

Just a lad I was at 13  years when my father passed a-way

And I had to take a job as a deckhand, on the Molly May

And the time I spent as the summer passed, turned into 50 years

And the sound she made as she broke the waves, still rings within my ears

 

She was passed to me when I was 23, Captain Mills went round the bend

He saw a fore runner on the dock one night, and never sailed again

Superstition be damned, I sailed her proud, fair maiden of the sea

There was never another like her, and no one for her but me

 

As the years went by and the tales ran high of the catches we brought in

There were times I thought we’d sink her, but her spirit would not give in

Words were spoken, souls were broken, and the bottle shattered mine

I could see she’d outlive me and I’d not win the war of time

 

I saw the time with me in my prime, no man could be my equal

Through the eye of the needle I sailed her, any day

When I grew older I couldn’t hold her, my courage slipped a-way

So they put a young boy from Canso at the wheel of the Molly May

 

I was there to see her sail away in the cold December haze

But the Canso boy had never seen the likes of the southeast wind and waves

At the harbor mouth, he drifted south, right into lighthouse rock

And he smashed the keel and laid her low, while I watched there from the dock

 

I saw the days amid devil waves, no man could be my equal

Through the eye of the needle I sailed her, any day

When I grew older I couldn’t hold her, my courage slipped away

So they put a young boy from Canso at the wheel of the Molly May

 

And I wish that I’d gone down, boys, at the wheel of the Molly May