THE MARY ELLEN CARTER
(words and music by Stan Rogers; learned from Martin Choate)
She went down last October in a pouring driving rain,
The owners wrote her off, not a nickel would they spend.
All spring now we've been with her on a barge lent by a friend.
For we couldn't leave her there, you see, to crumble into scale,
Stan Rogers wrote this song, Bob Cusick learned it well.
(from miriam berg's folksong collection)
(music calligraphy by miriam berg)
The skipper he'd been drinking and the mate he felt no pain.
Too close to Three-Mile Rock and she was dealt her mortal blow,
And the Mary Ellen Carter settled low.
There were just us five aboard her when she finally was awash,
We'd worked like hell to save her no matter what the cost,
And the groan she gave as she went down it caused us to proclaim,
We'd make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again!
Rise again, rise again,
That her name not be lost from the knowledge of men.
And those who loved her best and were with her till the end
Will make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again!
"She gave twenty years of service, boys, then met her sorry end,
The insurance paid the loss to us, so let her rest below."
Then they laughed at us and said we had to go.
But we talked of her all winter, some days around the clock,
"She's worth a quarter million a-floating at the dock,"
And with every jar that hit the bar we swore we would remain
And make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again!
Rise again, rise again (etc.)
Three dives a day in a hard-hat suit and twice I've had the bends.
Thank God it's only 60 feet and the currents there are slow
Or I'd never have the strength to go below
But we've patched her rents and stopped her vents, dogged hatch and porthole dow
Put cables to her fore and aft and girded her around
Tomorrow morn we hit the air and then take up the strain
To make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again!
Rise again, rise again (etc.)
She'd saved our lives so many times, running through the gale,
And those laughing drunkards there who led her to a sorry grave,
They won't be laughing in another day!
And you to whom adversity has dealt the final blow,
With people lying to you, everywhere you go,
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again!
Rise again, rise again,
Though your heart be broken and your life about to end.
No matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love, a friend,
Just like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again!
The Marine Electric sank with Bob into a freezing hell.
But all night long he sang this song of the Mary Ellen's rise
And so miraculously stayed alive
Stan Rogers lost his body in a plane in '83,
But like Joe Hill it's clear that he's alive as you and me.
Whenever folks refuse to be defeated by the pain
You can see Stan's beaming face arise again!
Rise again, rise again,
Though your heart be broken and your life about to end.
No matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love, a friend,
Just like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again!