Captain, O Captain!  My time has come

You abandoned me – what have you done?

You forgot the times we had at sea

And now onshore you’ve forsaken me

The day we were out till way too late

I saved your soul in the Hecate Strait

Those fish we caught from the deep together

Blood and scales in every weather

Okay, so I weren’t so steady or stable

But I was fast and you were able

No matter how the sea would swirl

None aboard would ever hurl

Navigating between us was quite a tangle

Heading for Sitka we washed up in Wrangell

I miss your kids and even the wife

My pistons ran louder than your family strife

My engine’s fine, the rudder’s broke

The deck planks leak but I still float

My shaft is straight, the prop is bent

The oil dripped out, the fuel is spent

The wheel was stole now two years back

But the rods still stand in the fishing rack

The time we passed, the seas we ploughed

You haven’t stayed true to the stuff you vowed

Captain, you gave up on my needs

I’m on the beach and in the weeds

So, while I sit here high and dry

I think of the ways boats come to die.

 

Jonathon L. Siegel, 1949