The Last Ship

It's all there in the Gospels
The Magdalene girl comes to pay her respects
But her mind is awhirl
When she finds the tomb empty
The stone had been rolled
Not a sign of a corpse in the dark and the cold

When she reaches the door, sees an unholy sight
There's this solitary figure in a halo of light
He just carries on, floating past Calvary Hill
In an almighty hurry, aye, but she might catch him still

"Tell me where are you going, Lord
And why in such haste?"
"Now don't hinder me, woman
I've no time to waste
For they're launching a boat on the 'morrow at noon
And I have to be there before daybreak"

"Oh, I cannot be missing, the lads'll expect me
Why else would the good Lord himself resurrect me?
For nothing'll stop me, I have to prevail
Through the teeth of this tempest, in the mouth of a gale
May the angels protect me if all else should fail
When the last ship sails"

Oh, the roar of the chains and the cracking of timbers
The noise at the end of the world in your ears
As a mountain of steel makes its way to the sea
And the last ship sails

It's a strange kind of beauty
It's cold and austere
And whatever it was that you've done to be here
It's the sum of your hopes, your despairs, and your fears
When the last ship sails

Well, the first to arrive saw these signs in the East
Like that strange moving finger at Balthazar's Feast
Where they asked the advice of some wandering priest
And the sad ghosts of men whom they'd thought long deceased
And whatever they got said, they'd be counted at least
When the last ship sails

Oh, the roar of the chains and the cracking of timbers
The noise at the end of the world in your ears
As a mountain of steel makes its way to the sea
And the last ship sails

And whatever you'd promised
Whatever you've done
And whatever the station in life you've become
In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son
And whatever the weave of this life that you've spun
On the Earth or in Heaven or under the sun
When the last ship sails