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Off Cape Farwell


We sailed uncharted waters boys
On that final fateful trip:
There were rocks and cliffs and icebergs
Waiting for our laden ship
In the dangerous seas of Greenland
Off that cruel Farwell Cape.
We fished for nineteen days me boys
Then turned for our escape.

Half speed and riding rough
In those stormy seas
In uncharted waters my boys
A ship is never at ease.
And then came the fog my boys
Thick and swirling all around
And in those cruel waters my boys
Out doomed ship went aground.

One lifeboat taken by waves my boys
Smashed against the port side
The other launched but flooded
And quickly capsized.
With the distress calls being sent
They abandoned ship for the waves
Nine men reached the rocks me boys
But only one was saved.

For the sea's a cruel mistress
She's fickle and unstable
And of those  nine men me boys
Only one of them was able
To cling to the rocks me boys
And when the story was told
Eight desperate men taken
By the waves or biitter cold.

Four times he landed
But on the first three
He was taken off again
By that stormy sea.
Eleven long and endless hours
Was that deckie tossed
Fearing all the while my boys he"d
Be joining those of the lost.

He saw the ship Poseidon and
Taking his fate in his hand
Struck out to swim for her my boys
From that precarious rocky land.
The only survivor from those uncharted
Dangerous icy stormy rocky seas.
For she's a fickle mistress my boys
With power to do just as she please.

This story really has no happy ending
For that trawler Norman survived,
Seen grounded in the clearing storm,
And, aboard, all may have survived.
Though more than fifty years
Have passed by the turning clock
She'll never be forgotten because
 They named her grave The Norman Rock

Wives and children and lovers,
All those waiting safe ashore,
After weeks were finally told my boys
Their loved ones were no more.
The sea's  a cruel fickle mistress
 Your fate placed  in her hands
 Sailing uncharted waters boys
 In the seas of Greenland.

The Hull SteamTrawler Norman lost off Greenland, 4 October 1952, with only one survivor, ironically called Norman.







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