Haul Away, My Weathered Crew

The tide rolled out from Harrow Bay with gulls above the mast

I tied the line and checked the sail and watched the harbour pass

My brother carved a mark in oak beside the cabin door

Said, bring her home with salt in your beard and stories by the score

So haul away my weathered crew, the north wind knows our name

With a stout old hull and a lantern lit, we'll chase the morning flame

Through bitter spray and rolling blue, wherever the trade winds roam

We'll spend our years on the open sea, then steer the old boat home

We traded flour and Port St. John for cedar, tea and rope

A fiddler sang by the market wall and mended a sailor's hope

At dusk a storm came shouldering in and bent the harbour crane

We reefed the cloth and took the wheel and laughed into the rain

So haul away, my weather crew, the north wind knows our name

With a stout old hull and a lantern lit, we'll chase the morning flame

Through bitter spray and rolling blue, wherever the trade winds roam

We'll spend our years on the open sea, then steer the old boat home

Now 20 years have thinned my hair and silvered every scar

But I can still find Harrow Bay by one familiar star

The boy who waved beside the pier now waits beside the foam

He takes the wheel, I take the line and guide the old boat home

So haul away, my weather crew, the north wind knows our name

With a stout old hull and a lantern lit

We'll chase the morning flame

Through bitter spray and rolling blue

Wherever the trade winds roam

We'll spend our years on the open sea

Then steer the old boat home

The tide rolls in at Harrow Bay

The gulls wheel soft and low

I tie the line, the lantern shines

And tell the boy, let's go