Ultimate Tow.
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Ultimate Tow.
Three times round the capstan the cable takes the strain
As we pulled her from the pier side and out into the lane,
And she rose up, oh, so gently with the rising morning tide
As slowly down the channel, Angelina she did glide.
They said we had to move her, oh, we had to move her soon
As the frost of late October laid its rings around the moon
So we took her through the Tickle then we let the cable play
Then turned her to the south-south-west and out across the bay.
We headed down the channel then out upon the grounds
As the wind died to a whisper, we girded her around
We were on a painted ocean, underneath a painted sky
In the gray light of the morning, we came to say good-bye.
She was old when we met her, she was old when we were young
Our lives were all before us and hers was all but run
But we were all enchanted by her lines and shear
And if fortune stood against us, well, we really didn’t care.
We caulked her and we scrubbed her, we mended every line
And we learned to sail her smartly, though it took a bit of time
We were masters of the world, of wind and sea and sky
And for six good years we sailed her and then we said good-bye.
They took her to the back bay, tied her up at Gale’s pier;
Now Gale, he looked after her for more than twenty years
And then we got the letter saying Gale had passed away
And they’d sold the land for condos and they said she couldn’t stay.
Now Lee he’s out in Illinois, Gordon’s up in Maine
Nor, me, and Charlie are all that here remain;
How we’d sit there in her cabin and we’d sing until the dawn;
Larry’s now a doctor, Stan and Bill are gone.
I opened up her sea cocks and then cast off the line,
And I thought just for a moment of when we were in our prime;
Then I felt the deck rock gently with the movement of the tide
As I climbed down to the tow boat and we pushed off from her side.
We circled once around her as the water ebbed and flowed
As the sea commenced to fill her, she began to settle low,
And when it reached the timber ports she gave a quiet sigh
As the bow sank ever lower and the stern rose to the sky.
And Nor cut the engine and we drifted with the swell
As the sea birds circled over head with the calling of the gulls,
And Charlie he flaked out the line the last of the tow
As she leaned her port rail under, Nor said, “There she goes.”
And we stood there for a moment caught as in a trance
As she curtsied like a lady at a spring cotillion dance,
And now she’s on the bottom with the fishes of the sea;
May she be as good a home to them as she’s been a home to me.
Header graphic "Ultimate Tow," ©1983, lithograph by John A. Noble, Staten Island Institute of Arts & Sciences.