Shipyard

[JACKIE]
Ah me name is Jackie White
I’m the foreman of the yard
And ya don’t mess with Jackie on this quayside
I’m as hard as iron plate
Woe betide you if you’re late
When we have to push a boat out on the spring tide

Now they could die and hope for Heaven
But they’d need to work their shift
And I’d expect them all to back me to the hilt
And if St. Peter at his gate were to ask them why they’re late?
Why, they’d tell him that they had to get a ship built

[JACKIE & MEN]
We build battleships and cruisers (ah)
For her Majesty the Queen
Super tankers for Onassis, (ah)
And all the classes in between
We built the greatest shipping tonnage
That the world has ever seen

[JACKIE]
And the only life we’ve known is in the shipyard

Now, gentlemen

[JACKIE & MEN]
Steel in the stockyard
Iron in the soul
We’ll conjure up a ship
Where there used to be a hole

But we don’t know what we’ll do
If the yard gets sold

[JACKIE & TOM DAWSON]
For the only life we’ve known is in the shipyard

[BILLY THOMPSON]
Why are we makin’ nice with this bloke if he’s just out to shut us down?

[JACKIE]
We’re trying to make him understand

[BILLY]
It’s about bloody time he understood me then!

My name is Billy Thompson
I’m shop steward for the Union
And me dream is proletarian revolution
Comrades, brothers, fellow travelers and others
Class struggle is the means of dialectic evolution
And Das Kapital’s me bible
So the ruling class are liable
And quoting Marx and Engels, it’s entirely justifiable
If the workers revolution here is

[BILLY & DAVY HARRISON]
Ever to be viable

[BILLY]
We become the rightful owners of the shipyard

[JACKIE]
Look, there’s a mixture of emotions
Hatred, gratitude and pride
And you hate yourself for crying
But that’s difficult to hide
For there’s a sadness in the launching
And ye worry what’s ahead
And that worry never leaves ye
No, it keeps on nagging in your head

So ye pray to God for orders
But ye’ll worry till ya dead...
Until they bury your remains
In the blacksmith’s shed
And the only life ye’ve known is in the shipyard

[MEN]
Steel in the stockyard
Iron in the soul
We’ll conjure up a ship
Where there used to be a hole

[JACKIE]
But we don’t know what we’ll do
If the yard gets sold

[MEN]
For the only life we’ve known is in the shipyard

[PEGGY]
My name is Peggy White
And I’ve nursed them through their injuries
And their cuts and wounds I’ve bound
Busted arms, and busted heads
Broken backs and broken legs
I’d often put them in a splint
Before we put them in the ground
And the fumes from all the welding
Where the poison air is hung
And the toxic radiation
That’s been blackening their tongues
I’d be giving them an aspirin
They’d be coughing up their lungs
It was all they ever got here in this shipyard

[FATHER O'BRIEN]
Jackie. Far be it from me to interfere, but I’m wondering if I might say a few words

[JACKIE]
Of course, Father. The floor is yours

[FATHER O'BRIEN]
Well, me name is James O’Brien, it’s from Ireland I was sent
To be the pastor of this flock and your spiritual guide
I might suggest to all of you heathens
What you might give up for Lent
But ye won’t give up your dignity
Ye can’t give up your pride

And ye can’t give up your history, ye can’t give up the ghost
For on the last day of judgment, a heavenly host
Will descend on this community to separate the just
From the damned and the wicked and the ones ye couldn’t trust

And there are times when the good Lord might ask for sacrifice
But it’s the devil that be tempting ye, even if he’s paid you twice
For their souls cannot be purchased as they haven’t got a price
And they won’t give up

[COMPANY]
No, we won’t give up, we won’t give up your/our lives here in the shipyard

[FATHER O'BRIEN]
Mind you, I once gave up the drinking, was it 1963?
It seems as though sobriety was not the thing for me
It was the worst three hours I ever hope to see

[COMPANY]
Steel in the stockyard
Iron in the soul
We’ll conjure up a ship
Where there used to be a hole

[JACKIE]
And the ship sets sail and the tale gets told
And the only life we’ve known is in the shipyard

[COMPANY]
Steel in the stockyard
Iron in the soul
We’ll get the bastard finished
Or we’ll end up on the dole

[JACKIE]
But we

[COMPANY]
Never minded working
In the rain and the cold
Shootin’ rivets in the bulkheads
Welding in the hold

[JACKIE]
But we don’t know what we’ll do
If the yard gets sold
The only

[COMPANY]
Life we’ve ever known is in the shipyard