Cape Ann

© 1986 Gordon Bok, BMI

Part of this story happened to me on a little schooner quite a few years ago. When a similar thing happened to a friend of mine on a fishing vessel, I figured it was worth mixing the two stories together into a formal gripe. The names are changed and some details omitted to protect the families of the guilty.

You can pass your days in the dory, boys,

You can go with the worst and the best,

But don't ever go with old Engleman, boys

Each trip you go could well be your last.

Don't you remember Cape Ann, boys?

Don't you remember Cape Ann?

Oh, that crazy old drunk was a loser, boys,

He never card if we never made in.

Don't you remember Cape Ann, boys?

Don't you remember Cape Ann

You'll never catch me on a trawl again,

For it's surely no life for a dog or a man.

Don't you remember the Shoals, boys,

Don't you remember the Shoals?

And the Old Man asleep at the wheel, boys,

By God, it was black and cold.

Well, the mate was the man with the gall, boys,

He got the Old Man away from the wheel;

He took him below, and he locked up the hatch,

And he threw all the booze o'er the rail.

(repeat first verse)

Cape Ann is recorded on the albums Clear Away in the Morning, North Winds Clearing, and Peter Kagan and the Wind, and is also in the songbook Time and the Flying Snow