Stan Rogers – The Mary Ellen Carter (Guitar)

    G
She went down last October

     C               G
In a pouring driving rain

    Am
The skipper he'd been drinking and

    C               D
The mate he felt no pain

    G
Too close to Three Mile Rock and she was

C                G
Dealt her mortal blow 

        Am                        D
And the Mary Ellen Carter settled low

          G
There was just us five aboard her

         C             G
When she finally was a-wash

   Am
We worked like hell to save her

    C               D
All heedless of the cost

        G
And the groan she gave as she went down

   C               G
It caused us to proclaim

         Am         D               G
That the Mary Ellen Carter would rise again

         G
Well the owners wrote her off

      C                 G
Not a nickel would they spend

          Am
"She gave twenty years of service, boys

     C             D
Then met her sorry end

      G
But insurance paid the loss to us

   C              G
So let her rest below."

          Am
Then they laughed at us

                   D
And said we had to go

       G
But we talked of her all winter

     C               G
Some days around the clock

      Am
She's worth a quarter million

 C                D
Afloat and at the dock

         G
And with every jar that hit the bar

   C                G
We swore we would remain 

             Am         D          G
And make the Mary Ellen Carter rise  again!

     Am      D     G
Rise   again, rise  again

         C
That her name not be lost

       G            D
To the knowledge of men

    G
All those who loved her best and

     C         D       G
Were with her 'til the end

              Am         D          G
Will make the Mary Ellen Carter rise  again

    G
All spring now we've been with her

     C               G
On a barge lent by a friend

      Am
Three dives a day in a hardhat suit and

C                  D
Twice I've had the bends

      G
Thank God it's only sixty feet and

    C                 G
The currents here are slow

       Am
Or I'd never have the strength

        D
To go below

          G
But we've patched her rents, stopped her vents

       C                  G
Dogged hatch and porthole down

    Am
Put cables to her fore and aft

    C           D
And girded her around

  G
Tomorrow noon, we hit the air 

    C                 G
And then take up the strain and

         Am         D          G
Make the Mary Ellen Carter rise  again!

     Am      D     G
Rise   again, rise  again

         C
That her name not be lost

       G            D
To the knowledge of men

    G
All those who loved her best and

     C         D       G
Were with her 'til the end

              Am         D          G
Will make the Mary Ellen Carter rise  again

       G
For we couldn't leave her there,

            C            G
You see, to crumble into scale

      Am
She'd saved our lives so many times

C                  D
Living through the gale

        G
And the laughing, drunken rats

             C          G
Who left her to a sorry grave

     Am                           D
They won't be laughing in another day

    G                         C               G
And you to whom adversity has dealt the final blow

     Am
With smiling bastards lying to you

C              D
Everywhere you go

     G
Turn to and put out all your strength

   C                 G
Of arm and heart and brain

             Am         D          G
And like the Mary Ellen Carter rise  again!

     Am      D     G
Rise   again, rise  again

            C
Though your heart it be broken

   G             D
Or life about to end

   G
No matter what you've lost

        C       D       G
Be it a home, a love, a friend

         Am         D          G
Like the Mary Ellen Carter rise  again

     Am       D    G
Rise   again, ri-i-ise again

            C
Though your heart it be broken

   G             D
Or life about to end

   G
No matter what you've lost

        C       D       G
be it a home, a love, a friend

         Am         D          G
Like the Mary Ellen Carter rise  again