Lyrics

Must sorrow come from living by the sea?
Is it a simple fact of life inevitable tragedy?
Do fishers in their little boats and sailors in their ships
All put their faith in God above when they’re outward bound on trips?

What price prosperity? More ocean tragedy
How many lost at sea how many dead?
Will we sing of the lost of those on tempest tossed
Or accept it as the cost of our daily bread?

Is this why we have waited in our turn?
And now wealthy fail to acknowledge that we still have much to learn
Did fishers sealers shipwrecked sailors youngsters on the beach
All placidly turn heavenward with rescue out of reach?

What price prosperity? Embracing technology
Bewitched by machinery but trusting to luck
Will their story be told when their children’s children are old?
Or will the memory be cold of what they did for a buck?

When a helicopter crashed into the foam
Did their last thoughts turn from themselves to loved ones left behind at home?
Did the rest of us who heard the news lament upon the shore
The terrible price of industry as we’ve often done before?

What price prosperity? There’s more to destiny
A tragic history’s not a twist of fate
When there’s a safer way it must be done today
Cause workers surely pay when it’s left too late
What price prosperity?