Foreword A promise is air. A song is air. So is the wind in a sail. Nothing in the physics tells them apart; the entire difference is whether anyone is still willing to believe the sound. Take away the thing a crew does for no practical reason — the singing, the part that produces nothing measurable — and you will be told, correctly, that it cost nothing to remove. It costs the ship. Meaning was never in the object. It is in what somebody brings to it, and it does not survive being performed mechanically. Lyrics [Intro] We have a mouth for you. Wind, we have a rope and a year. Heave, and the rope comes down... Air, hands, air! Heave, and the year comes round... Air, hands, air! [Verse 1] He signed us on with a ledger and a pen, Named us a port and he named us a when. The hold would come heavy, the shares would be fair, And we filled up our lungs on the strength of the air. He promised a mooring where the headland comes down, He promised a bell and a name for the town. He promised the wind would be standing our way, And we hauled on the promise for a year and a day. And a hand believes a thing because a hand must pull, And a rope goes easy when the chest is full. [Chorus] What did he swear on the ship's own name? And what came aboard when the pay-day came? So save your breath and save your back, Haul, hands, haul! A word's a wind, and the wind blows slack. Air, hands, air! [Verse 2] It started with nothing. A Tuesday. A word. The mate told Kelleher to stow the song she'd heard. Kelleher kept humming. The mate took her jaw. And that was the whole of it. That was the war. Then Kelleher wouldn't work and the bosun wouldn't hear, And the both of them were shouting and the shouting turned to fear. Twelve hands in a passage and the lamp gone out, And every one aboard her with a full mouth. [Chorus] What did he swear on the ship's own name? And what came aboard when the pay-day came? So save your breath and save your back, Haul, hands, haul! A word's a wind, and the wind blows slack. Air, hands, air! [Verse 3] By the second bell it was knives on the stair, By the third we had the captain gulping air. We put him in the water. We put six more. And nobody now can tell you what it was for. [Chorus] What did he swear on the ship's own name? And what came aboard when the pay-day came? So save your breath and save your back, Haul, hands, haul! A word's a wind, and the wind blows slack. Air, hands, air! [Interlude] [The Doldrums] The water like a lid. Canvas hanging off the yard the way a mouth hangs open with nothing left to say. Kelleher's in the water. The mate is in the water. The ledger's in the water, and the water doesn't move. Nobody names the port now. Nobody's named it in a year. We eat. We mend. We keep the deck. We are very good at hauling. We are very good. [Verse 4] Now we don't ask for haven and we don't ask for pay, We ask what's in the hand, and the hand says stay. We don't sing the old ones. We don't sing at all. We haul when the mate says haul. [Chorus] What did he swear on the ship's own name? And what came aboard when the pay-day came? So save your breath and save your back, Haul, hands, haul. [Outro] What did he swear on the ship's own name...
