The Voyage of the Beverley-Anne
(I wrote this after a near shipwreck, ferrying the Beverley-Anne ,
an old tugboat, from Vancouver harbor to Queen Charlotte City
in the month of March 1978.)
The Beverley Anne sailed of to-day
Her beam awash in foam
For fifteen years so still she laid
Now once again she’d roam…
The restless sea awaited her
Remembering days gone past
When many a storm had bared her keel
and burried her to the mast.
Her crew was fair, three able men
sprang eager to the task
but ten miles out
the weather changed
The calm was but a mask
When the main pump broke
And the radar stopped,
When everything up was down
They knew they could loose
this battle at sea
But then there was no turning round
For fouteen hours
in the dead of night
With the howling wind the master,
They were hapless pawns
In an ancient game
between floating and disaster
But when daylight broke
on the wounded boat
When the night met the morning sky
Though barely afloat
They knew they had won…
They could hear the seagull’s cry
Refrain: Avast ye matey, avast , avast!!
The stormy blue has found you,
Avast ye matey, avast, avast
A watery grave awaits you
(I wrote this after a near shipwreck, ferrying the Beverley-Anne ,
an old tugboat, from Vancouver harbor to Queen Charlotte City
in the month of March 1978.)
The Beverley Anne sailed of to-day
Her beam awash in foam
For fifteen years so still she laid
Now once again she’d roam…
The restless sea awaited her
Remembering days gone past
When many a storm had bared her keel
and burried her to the mast.
Her crew was fair, three able men
sprang eager to the task
but ten miles out
the weather changed
The calm was but a mask
When the main pump broke
And the radar stopped,
When everything up was down
They knew they could loose
this battle at sea
But then there was no turning round
For fouteen hours
in the dead of night
With the howling wind the master,
They were hapless pawns
In an ancient game
between floating and disaster
But when daylight broke
on the wounded boat
When the night met the morning sky
Though barely afloat
They knew they had won…
They could hear the seagull’s cry
Refrain: Avast ye matey, avast , avast!!
The stormy blue has found you,
Avast ye matey, avast, avast
A watery grave awaits you
