Tall Ship Story

You'll find me drinking in the harbour
And if you have an hour 'til you set sail
Join an old sea dog, sit here in the corner
And gather round boys and hear my tale
We were homeward bound from the far East Indies
And filling up the hold in old Shanghai,
when a horse and a carriage they came near us
An old man and a young woman drew alongside

There are stories told of the wind and the rock
Of haunted ships that never made dock
A thousand tales of the deep and the stormy brine
And this one's mine

She was the sweetest thing, the fairest beauty
I wiped my brow, I leaped ashore
He called me close and softly whispered
Young man, for this one night she's yours
My shipmates stretched their eyes in wonder
As I climbed in the carriage and I rode away
Passed that night in sweetest rapture
And I didn't return 'til the break of day

We stood by the sea as dawn was breaking
Sadness in the old man's grey eyes
Took my arm, he said now leave us
But go tell the whole world about old Shanghai
One every ship some loud-mouthed sailor
Says it happened to him what happened to you
But for one young man in all these oceans
Well, I will have made this fiction true
Forever known as a liar by all your crew