To Hell by Compass

words & music by Martin Ling

‘Twas September nineteen-twenty, when we set out to sea
On a submarine of the U. S. Navy (S-5!)
To make her dive within a minute was the order to the crew
I’d be careful what I wish if I were you (We’re Alive!)

Now we’re sunk in thirty fathoms, fifty miles off Jersey

And we don’t know how much longer we can breathe (S-5!)

For our tail end’s a’floatin’ and a’bobbin’ in the breeze

And our bow’s on the bottom of the sea (We’re Alive!)

When the skipper gave the order all the valves were open wide
But the gunner’s mate was late to get them shut (S-5!)
The torpedo room was flooded and she went down like a slide
And we landed on the bottom with a thud (We’re Alive!)

Well we sat there on the bottom and we wondered what to do
For nobody would ever find us there (S-5!)
But we did the calculation that if everything we blew
That we could put the stern up in the air (We’re Alive!)

So we blew the after ballast and the stern went for the sky
While everything inside crashed down afore (S-5!)
We were falling through the hatches, and clinging for our lives
And shortly we’d be climbing up the floor (We’re Alive!)

Now the batteries were flooded, nasty gas was spread around
You could feel the sting of chlorine in your nose (S-5!)
One man was nearly drowned before we got the hatches down
And that was just the middle of our woes (We’re Alive!)

Then we climbed up by the propshaft, we tapped and had a feel
We thought that we could hear the wind out there (S-5!)
But by hand we’d have to drill, through three-quarter-inch of steel
Or soon we would be running out of air (We’re Alive!)

After thirty-six long hours we’d a hole three inches wide
We hoisted out a flagpole and a shirt (S-5!)
We could see the ships outside, but they all sailed by
Nobody recognised our strange alert (We’re Alive!)

It was only when a watchman saw a buoy too far from land
That finally they turned around to see (S-5!)
And where to are you bound, they asked our signalman
To hell, by the compass, said he (We’re Alive!)

The Atlanthus and the Goethals, they came to cut us free
All thirty-eight aboard saved from their graves (S-5!)
And although we all survived, I’ll soon be reassigned
I think I’d rather sail above the waves (We’re Alive!)