[Intro] [Single low male lead, very sparse] [Low male choir enters beneath him on long held notes] There’s moonlight on the quarterdeck, There’s silver on the rail, There’s shadow cast by every man, And shadow cast by sail. But where the captain walks at night, The boards lie pale and bare, And every man aboard this ship Pretends he does not stare. [Verse 1] He came to us in Martinique, With papers clean and new, A coat too fine for any dock, And eyes no man looked through, He knew the reefs, he knew the storms, He knew which winds would turn, And once he named a ship three days Before her lights were seen. [Choir] [Soft sustained harmony] Three days before, Three days before, Before her lights were seen. [Verse 2] He never drinks and never sleeps, Or so the watchmen say, At midnight he is on the stern, At dawn he’s there by day, No portrait holds his likeness right, No mirror keeps his face, And dogs ashore will bare their teeth When he walks through the place. [Chorus] [Lead carries melody, choir harmonises underneath] The captain has no shadow, Though the moon is burning white, No darkness follows at his heel, No shape beside the light, The captain has no shadow, And no man asks him why, For sailors learn to hold their tongue When something should not die. [Verse 3] We crossed a storm off Cartagena, Black enough to drown, The sea rose higher than the mast, The sky came crashing down, He stood alone beside the wheel, While every sailor prayed, And lightning split the deck in two, But never touched his blade. [Choir] [Deeper harmony] Never touched, Never touched, The lightning never touched him. [Bridge] [Lead almost whispered] Some say he drowned before our birth, Some say he sold his name, Some say there’s something in the deep That answers when he came, I only know that when he speaks, The sea itself grows still, And every compass turns a hair Before he gives his will. [Chorus] The captain has no shadow, Though the moon is burning white, No darkness follows at his heel, No shape beside the light, The captain has no shadow, And no man asks him why, For sailors learn to hold their tongue When something should not die. [Verse 4] One night I saw him at the rail, His coat moved in no breeze, He whispered words I could not know Into the listening seas, Then far below the waterline, A pale green light appeared, And for the first time in my life, I saw the captain feared. [Final Chorus] [Choir fuller, sombre, sustained] The captain has no shadow, And the moon has crossed the mast, No darkness follows at his heel, No footprint holds him fast, The captain has no shadow, But tonight I understand, There’s something walking under us That casts one from the sand. [Outro] [Lead alone at first] There’s moonlight on the quarterdeck, There’s silver on the rail. [Choir fades in] Every man aboard has shadow. [Lead] Every man... [Choir, very low] But one.
