The Margaret Keene

Every day we walk the harbour she would look out on the sea

And as the boats would come and go she'd turn and say to me

"Oh, let's go out on the water

This city I have seen

The streets are loud and dirty, but the ocean's clear and clean."

Oh, the price we pay for living in the city by the sea

Just to know we could escape if we were brave enough to leave

The boat could take us anywhere we'd ever want to go

When that coastline disappears, the boat's the only home we'll know

There's a job out on the water

Aboard The Margaret Keene

Three months of barely any pay for a world we've never seen

Oh we'll go to sea all summer

Come fall return to land

I'll marry her the day we dock and never part again

We stepped aboard that fishing boat one rainy morning June

We met the captain, met the crew, and set to leave at noon

Oh, we sailed out from the harbour

With skies so dark and grey

But far from shore the sun did soar and smile and she did say

Oh, the price we pay for living in the city by the sea

Just to know we could escape if we were brave enough to leave

The boat could take us anywhere we'd ever want to go

When that coastline disappears, the boat's the only home we'll know

Every day we'd cast the lines out

At night we'd sleep alone

Strikers never stood a chance with twenty lines in tow

Oh the captain worked us harder than we'd ever worked before

But each night as she was sleeping I was thinkin' of the shore

One night as we lay sleeping

The storm had found our course

The Keene took water o'er the sides

The waves they came in force

We awoke and tied our lifelines

I prayed the seas would tame

I've never seen her smile so wide as in the wind and rain

As the summer ended, the Keene returned to land

In my coat I had a ring to put upon her hand

Oh, but when I turned and saw her staring back at me

I knew she'd never come to shore

Nor I return to sea

Oh, the price we pay for living in the city by the sea

Just to know we could escape if we were brave enough to leave

The boat could take us anywhere we'd ever want to go...