The Last Ship

It's all there in the Gospels The Magdalene girl comes to pay her respects But her mind is awhirl When she finds the tomb empty The stone had been rolled Not a sign of a corpse in the dark and the cold When she reaches the door, sees an unholy sight There's this solitary figure in a halo of light He just carries on, floating past Calvary Hill In an almighty hurry, aye, but she might catch him still "Tell me where are you going, Lord And why in such haste?" "Now don't hinder me, woman I've no time to waste For they're launching a boat on the 'morrow at noon And I have to be there before daybreak" "Oh, I cannot be missing, the lads'll expect me Why else would the good Lord himself resurrect me? For nothing'll stop me, I have to prevail Through the teeth of this tempest, in the mouth of a gale May the angels protect me if all else should fail When the last ship sails" Oh, the roar of the chains and the cracking of timbers The noise at the end of the world in your ears As a mountain of steel makes its way to the sea And the last ship sails It's a strange kind of beauty It's cold and austere And whatever it was that you've done to be here It's the sum of your hopes, your despairs, and your fears When the last ship sails Well, the first to arrive saw these signs in the East Like that strange moving finger at Balthazar's Feast Where they asked the advice of some wandering priest And the sad ghosts of men whom they'd thought long deceased And whatever they got said, they'd be counted at least When the last ship sails Oh, the roar of the chains and the cracking of timbers The noise at the end of the world in your ears As a mountain of steel makes its way to the sea And the last ship sails And whatever you'd promised Whatever you've done And whatever the station in life you've become In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son And whatever the weave of this life that you've spun On the Earth or in Heaven or under the sun When the last ship sails