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 doo,r 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 ye 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 canna 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
And 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 ye've done to be here
It's the sum of yr hopes, yr despairs and yr 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 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've 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.
