9.  Mary Ellen Carter:

Words & Music by Stan Rogers

Bill Masino – Lead vocal

Kathleen Mullaly Masino - Harmony vocal

Colin O'Brian - Acoustic Guitar

Bryan Blaylock – Bodhran

Tom Schwark - Mandolin

 

More info. on Stan Rogers 

see Barrett's Privateers on this CD.

USS Constitution by Aylward, William James

1)  She went down last October 

     in the poring driving rain. 

     The skipper he’s been drinking 

     and the mate he felt no pain.  

     Too close to Three Mile Rock 

     and she was dealt her mortal blow

     And the Marry Ellen Carter sitting low.

 

     There was just us five aboard her 

     when she finally was a-wash.

     We worked like hell to save her 

     all headless of the cost.

     And the groan she gave as she went down

     it caused us to proclaim  

     That the Mary Ellen Carter’d rise again.

 

     Instrumental break

 

2)  Well, the owners wrote her off, 

     not a nickel would they spend.

     "She gave twenty years of service, 

     boys, and met her sorry end.

     but insurance paid the loss to us, 

     so let her rest below",

     They laughed at us and said 

     we’d 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 watch the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

 

Refrain: 

Rise again, raise again,

Let her name not be lost 

to the knowledge of men,

For those who loved her best 

and were with her to the end,

We’ll make the Mary Ellen Cater, rise again.

 

3)  All spring, now, we’ve been with her  

     on a barge lent by a friend.

     Three dives a day in a hard hat suit 

     and twice I’ve had the bends.

     Thank God it’s only sixty feet 

     and the currents her 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 down

     Put cables to her ‘for and aft 

     and girded her around

     And tomorrow, noon, we hit the air 

     and then take up the strain

     And watch the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

 

     Refrain

 

     For we couldn’t leave her there,

     you see, to crumble into scale.

     She’d save our lives so many times,

     living through the gale,

     And the laughing, drunken rats 

     who left her to a sorry grave,

     They won’t be laughing in another day.

 

     And you, to whom adversity 

     has dealt that final blow

     With smiling bastards lying to you

     everywhere you go

     Turn to, and put out all your strength 

     of and heart and brain

     And, like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again!

 

(Last refrain only) 2x

Rise again, rise again,

Thou your heart, it be broken, 

your life about to end,

No matter what you’ve lost, 

a home, a love, a friend,

Be like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.