Story Behind The Song

One of a series of nautical pieces begun in the 80s, including The Navigator (viz. partial identity of melodies). Longest to finish of any of Thom's songs: 12 years (people kept ridiculing the notion of an "Irish Tango").

Song Description

Loose girl falls in love with boy who joins the Royal Navy; finds she's preggers after he's gone. Moves in with another, lesser boy. Gets letter from sailor from ship at sea; hears ship gets blown up in Falklands battle. Comforts herself in her loneline

Lyrics

Josie was good as could be;
she loved him only, but he went off to sea,
and it showed her the way of the world:
the boys, and a lonely girl.
No one was satisfied:
at least not her, though she tried and she tried,
till she stuck one day with the best of the clay,
and a baby who cried in the night.

San Carlos Water, eight miles or longer,
a place where there's no place to hide;
a pocket of wrongs, with rockets and bombs
from drizzling Fifties' skies.
"Mano a mano, venguemos Belgrano,
las islas Malvinas serran!"
I remember the night the Antelope died:
she died in San Carlos Water.

Josie wrote home for free,
postmark saying it was "somewhere at sea";
he'd been all the way round the world,
and for him there was just one girl.
He told her he'd be home soon?
the tiny ship he's on was quick as a tune:
they'd fought the Argentines twice in one day,
and Antelope came clean away.

San Carlos Water, eight miles or longer,
a place where there's no place to hide;
a pocket of wrongs, with rockets and bombs
from drizzling Fifties' skies.
"Mano a mano, venguemos Belgrano,
las islas Malvinas serran!"
I remember the night the Antelope died:
she died in San Carlos Water.

Fever took hold that night,
burning, burning, so she turned out the light,
when the man she'd took for her own
called up on the public-bar phone:
"Baby, I think you should see:
bloody Falklands is all over teevee.
the Argies have hammered the ships night and day,
and one just blew up in the bay."

San Carlos Water, eight miles or longer,
a place where there's no place to hide;
a pocket of wrongs, with rockets and bombs
from drizzling Fifties' skies.
"Mano a mano, venguemos Belgrano,
las islas Malvinas serran!"
I remember the night the Antelope died:
she died in San Carlos Water.

Years have come and they've flown;
her little baby has grown and he's grown.
The man she took up with is gone?
went working, and works off and on.
But Josie, her growing boy,
sometimes a heartache, but always her joy,
looks like a man?just as good as could be?
who never came home from the sea.

San Carlos Water, eight miles or longer,
a place where there's no place to hide;
a pocket of wrongs, with rockets and bombs
from drizzling Fifties' skies.
"Mano a mano, venguemos Belgrano,
las islas Malvinas serran!"
I remember the night the Antelope died:
she died in San Carlos Water.

Playlist Creator	Playlist Name	Date Added
lolaeire	My Top Songs	2/2/2015
bernadette607	Thom Moore	4/25/2011