Lyrics

I’ve had enough of swiling ships, the squalor and the gore
The Harlaw sank beneath me and I said I’d hunt no more
But Albert John was just sixteen and bound to try his hand
Along I went for one more run aboard the Newfoundland

Stay right by me, follow to my lead
They’ll work you twice what you can take and pay you half your need
Your ma and me, we couldn’t see to send you out alone
I brought you to this frozen waste, and I will bring you home.

The ship was jinked right from the pier, our dreams were dark and strange
The shifting floes they jammed her in, the whitecoats out of range
The glass showed dirty weather on a dawn as red as fire
For half the day we crossed on foot in search of Kean’s desire.

Stay right by me, follow to my lead
To chase a captain’s folly and to serve an owner’s greed
Your ma and me, we couldn’t see to send you out alone
I brought you to this frozen waste, and I will bring you home.

A chilling wind caught up the snow to drift and hide the trail
A whisper rose, “They’ll be no man alive to tell the tale,”
With songs and thoughts of home they faced a night out in the cold
But of that long night’s miseries, the half cannot be told.

Stay right by me, follow to my lead
What hope we have is to be men and stay upon our feet
Your ma and me, we couldn’t see to send you out alone
I brought you to this frozen waste, and I will bring you home.

The daylight rose and crossed the sky, again was falling low
We reached the end of faith and strength and sank into the snow
How little can a poor man do to keep a son from harm
I wrapped him in my guernsey and I locked him in my arms.

Stay right by me, follow to my lead
And if your hour is come, me by’e, then let it come for me
Your ma and me, we couldn’t see to send you out alone
I brought you to this frozen waste, and I will bring you home.