Intro:
C Am C Am
Verse 1:
C Am F G
How still lies the bay in the light western airs
Dm F G
Which blow from the crimson horizon
C C7 F G
Once more we tack home with a dry empty hold
Dm F G
Saving gas with the breezes so fair
C Am F G
She's a kindly Cape Isander, old, but still sound
Dm F G
But so lost in the longliner's shadow
C C7 F G
Make and break, and make do, but the fish are so few
Dm F C
That she won't be replaced should she founder
Verse 2:
C Am F G
It's so hard to not think of before the big war
Dm F G
When the cod were so cheap and so plenty
C C7 F G
Foreign trawlers go by now with long-seeing eyes
Dm F G
Taking all, where we seldom take any
C Am F G
And the young folk don't stay with the fisherman's way
Dm F G
Long ago, they all moved to the cities
C C7 F G
And the ones left behind, old, tired, and blind
Dm F C
Can't work for "a pound or a penny".
Chorus:
F G C
In Make and Break Harbour the boats are so few
Am G F G
Too many are pulled up and rotten
C Am C F
Most houses stand empty, old nets hung to dry
G F C
Are blown away, lost and forgotten.
Verse 3:
C Am F G
Now I can see the big draggers have stirred up the bay
Dm F G
Leaving lobster traps smashed on the bottom
C C7 F G
Can they think it don't pay to respect the old ways
Dm F G
That Make and Break men have not forgotton?
C Am F G
For we still keep our time to the turn of the tide
Dm F G
And this boat that I built with my father
C C7 F G
Still lifts to the sky! The one lunger and I
Dm F C
Still talk like old friends on the water.
Chorus (twice):
F G C
In Make and Break Harbour the boats are so few
Am G F G
Too many are pulled up and rotten
C Am C F
Most houses stand empty, old nets hung to dry
G F C
Are blown away, lost and forgotten.
Extro:
C Am C F
G F C
