Do you remember riding home before a dying summer breeze?
Topsils gleaming gold and setting sun among the trees.
With the osprey wheeling slowly through the shadows
by the shore, where the towering cliffs of granite
plunged and fathomed deep or more and the tides ebb and flow down below.
You're a solid belt of Douglas fir and oak and yellow pine.
200 feet sail by a crew that numbered only nine.
Floating lumber through your timber ports and dye wood from the south.
Running home from Norfolk, bearing coal to heat the north
and whatever they could stow down below.
But the winter is upon you now and time is passing slow
and the tides ebb and flow down below.
You served them well for 15 years, your canvas all unfurled.
When New England sailing ships were found in ports around the world.
But spars gave way to smokestacks, clouds of white to black and gray.
There was nothing left for you to do but waste your time away
and the rot was spreading slow down below.
And the winter is upon you now and time is passing slow
and the tides ebb and flow down below.
From Wiscasset to the China lakes, the narrow gauge did run
and to push it northward to Quebec was old Frank Winter's plan.
And the schooners were to bring his cargoes in to meet the train.
So when he found you idle by the dock, he brought you down to Maine
where the tides ebb and flow down below.
He tried the best he could, but he just couldn't make it pay.
So he ran you both aground and turned around and walked away.
You've been waiting here for 50 years, but no one set you free.
Now you're broken down and dying, lying open to the sea
where the eddies swirl and flow down below.
And the winter is upon you now and time is passing slow
and the tides ebb and flow down below.
Now the people come and stare at you with wonder in their eyes.
The times have changed since men knew how to work a ship your size.
And the seas you sail are running black, in time we'll know our loss.
It's too late now for you, but is it too late now for us?
Can you teach us what you know before you go?
Oh, the winter is upon you now and time is passing slow
and the tides ebb and flow down below.
Oh, the winter is upon you now and time is passing slow
and the tides ebb and flow down below.