BORROWED GROUND (Schumann) Out off the cost of Semaphore There's not a seagull in sight Black clouds tower, wind and the rain Looks like a diry night The Star of Greece she got her harbour clearance with a load of grain for home The wind is tugging at the rigging There's a low and a broken moan (Chorus) Sailors arrive at their crossroads too Lines on a chart, etched in blue Stern to the wind, run with the sea Thunder across the reef. A run of ragged cliffs from Kingston to the Fleurieu Working the wind northwest There was almost an inch of rain that night Green rolling over the deck Seventeen hands on the Star of Greece In the cold and the dark and the rain And all but six or seven of them, wont make land again (Chorus) Twenty miles off course that night Driven too close to the beach Home is the sailor, home from the sea There's thunder across the reef. Evening falls and a soft wind brushes, Port Willunga Bay The rising moon is a silver disc Sliding up through the haze You can hear those sailors in the mizzen Screaming above the wind Just outside the holding ground On the dark side of the green (Chorus) Based on the wreck of the "Star of Greece" off the coast of Willunga on Friday 13/7/1888 |