Trust In God Above

(Mike Sparks)

Let go your peaks and middles let go your lowers too
Get the main sail on her there's a job for us to do
In any kind of weather when push it came to shove
We'd release the brails and set the sails and trust in God above

Back in the depression there was little work to do
We found it hard to raise enough to feed the crew just two
Anchored down at Greenhithe while week stretched into week
Or laying in the Medway in some foul smelling creek

The lazy dockyard stower, you'd keep an eye on him
You'd make a note and keep the boat in good seaworthy trim
With cargoes hard to come by and times a looking thin
You'd sell your soul to find a hole to get a bit more in

Take a sub to get some grub and stow the stuff you'd bought
Mainsail loosed, jib unfurled and the anchor chain hoved short
Casting off for Ipswich down channel we would go
And pray for a south-wester to give the barge a good blow

Tied up safe at Cliff Quay there's a cargo to go back
An evening with me barging mates in the good old Union Jack
Then early the next morning when the tide is on the turn
We'll sail again for London docks and a tidy sum we'll earn

Barging's not a job to me it's more a way of life
It's not all beer and skittles but again it's not all strife
I'm master in my own small world that's all I want to be
So release the brails and set the sails once more we'll go to sea

© 2005 Mike Sparks