There's a wind and it's a-sighing, along the waterside,
We're homeward bound at last, on tonight's full tide;
Around the world and back again is very far to roam –
From San Juan Strait to England, it's a long road home!
From San Juan Strait to England, it's a long road home!
We'll tow her out to Flattery before the sun is high;
Shake the harbour dust away, bid the land good-bye;
And singing in her tops'ls, the deep-sea wind will moan –
And lift us through it lively on the long road home.
And lift us through it lively on the long road home.
The Old Man he goes smiling, he's gathered in a crew:
We've got various Turks and infidels, we've even got a Jew;
We've got the pick of all the stiffs from Panama to Nome,
And we'll make them into sailors on the long road home.
Yah we'll make them into sailors on the long road home.
We've waited for a cargo, we've waited for a crew,
We've waited for the tide, and now the waiting's through;
Oh don't you feel the deep-sea wind, smell the deep-sea foam?
We'll be rolling gun'le-under on the long road home.
We'll be rolling gun'le-under on the long road home.
Instrumental
Well, it's "Home, boys, home" when the anchor rattles down,
In the reek of good old Mersey fog, rolling rich and brown:
Around the world and back again is very far to roam –
From San Juan Strait to England, it's a long road home!
From San Juan Strait to England, it's a long road home!
From San Juan Strait to England, it's a long road home!
(Based on a poem by Cicely Fox Smith from
Songs and Chanties: 1914-1916, edited by Cicely Fox Smith,
published by Elkin Mathews, London, UK, © 1919, pp. 31-32.
Adapted for singing by Peter Massey, © 2005, used with permission.
Further adapted by Charles Ipcar, 2006.)
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Jeff Logan
Portland, Maine |