[Intro] (piano alone, hushed storyteller) Winter comes down on the river mouth Three small ships are heading south [Verse 1] (storyteller, piano, strings enter softly) The gulls turned back where the charts run out Three ships and a hundred, no room for doubt A grey seal rose in the harbor light And watched them sail into the night [Pre-Chorus] (building, strings rising) Some carried Bibles, some carried debt Some carried dreams they hadn't lived yet The wind takes hold, the shore grows thin No one turns back once they begin [Chorus] (wide, aching, layered harmonies) Who wrote the names in the dark of the box? Who set the tide and who cut the locks? We're sailing on a letter no one's read Godspeed, godspeed, to the land ahead [Verse 2] (warmer, rock build underneath) He'd named a cape for the fish he caught Walked a shore the mapmakers forgot Years he begged for a ship and a seal Now the wind was up and the die was real [Pre-Chorus] (building, strings rising) Some carried Bibles, some carried debt Some carried dreams they hadn't lived yet The wind takes hold, the shore grows thin No one turns back once they begin [Chorus] (wide, aching, layered harmonies) Who wrote the names in the dark of the box? Who set the tide and who cut the locks? We're sailing on a letter no one's read Godspeed, godspeed, to the land ahead [Bridge] (hushed, almost whispered, sparse piano and one held guitar note) Red wax pressed on a cedar lid Names within that no one's seen Open it when the land appears And walk on into what will be [Instrumental Break — signature moment] (raw overdriven guitar enters over the strings with long sustained bends, climbing in steps like a ship cresting swells, swelling into full orchestra and ending on one big open chord hit) [Verse 3] (rising, resolute) Fever took him before the cold But the thing he started took hold A hundred men and a promise to keep Planted where the rivers run deep [Pre-Chorus] (rising, key lift begins) Some carried Bibles, some carried debt Some carried dreams they hadn't lived yet The wind takes hold, the shore grows thin No one turns back once they begin [Final Chorus] (fullest, key lift, resolute) They read the names by the river's light Fate had already set them right Sailed on a letter no one had read Godspeed, godspeed, to the land ahead [Outro] (fading, piano and voice, strings falling away) The grey seal slips beneath the tide The ships are gone, the land is wide Godspeed, godspeed
