The Mary Ellen Carter

By Stan Rogers
Rise Up Singing chapter: Seas and Sailors, p.203
Verses:
G - CD G / Am - C D / G - C G -/ Am - D - /
G - CD G / Am - C D / G - C G -/ Am D G -
Chorus:
Am D G - / C - G D / G - CD G / 1st

The Mary Ellen Carter may or may not be fictional. No one on the internet seems to know. And I'm now pretty sure I was wrong about the Great Lakes thing, since Three Mile Rock is in Newfoundland.

She went down last October in a pouring driving rain
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 was just five of us aboard her when she finally was awash
We'd worked like hell to save her, all heedless of the cost
And the groan she gave as she went down, it caused us to proclaim
That the Mary Ellen Carter would rise again

Well, the owners wrote her off; not a nickel would they spend
She gave twenty years of service, boys, then met her sorry end
But 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
For she's worth a quarter million, boys, afloatin' at the dock (alt: afloat and 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,
That her name not be lost to the knowledge of men;
Those who loved her best and were with her till the end,
Will make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

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 here are slow
Or I'd never have the strength to go below
But we've patched her rents, stopped her vents
Dogged hatch and porthole down
Put cables to her, fore and aft and girded her around
Tomorrow, noon, we hit the air and then take up the strain
And watch the Mary Ellen Carter rise again

For we couldn't leave her there, you see, to crumble into scale
She'd saved 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 the final blow
With smiling bastards 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 it be broken and life about to end
No matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love, a friend
Like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again

Rise again, rise again
Though your heart it be broken and life about to end
No matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love, a friend
Like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again