There's a ship lies rigged and ready in the harbor
Tomorrow for old England she sails
Far away from your land of endless sunshine
To my land full of rainy skies and gales
And I shall be aboard that ship tomorrow
Though my heart is full of tears at this farewell
For you are beautiful, I have loved you dearly
More dearly than the spoken word can tell (2x)
I've heard there's a wicked war a-blazing
And the taste of war I know so very well
Even now I see the foreign flag a-raising
Their guns on fire as we sail into hell
I have no fear of death, it brings no sorrow
But how bitter will be this last farewell Chorus
Though death and darkness gather all about me
My ship be torn apart upon the seas
I shall smell again the fragrance of these islands
And the heaving waves that brought me once to thee
And should I return home safe again to England
I shall watch the English mist roll through the daleChorus
"The Last Farewell" is a song by the British folk singer Roger Whittaker (music and vocals on the original recording) and Ron A. Webster (poem and lyrics). Whittaker hosted a radio program in the United Kingdom, backed by an orchestra with arrangements by Zack Lawrence. Roger Whittaker said, "One of the ideas I had was to invite listeners to send their poems or lyrics to me and I would make songs out of them. We got a million replies, and I did one each week for 26 weeks."
Ron Arthur Webster (1944-1994), a silversmith from Solihull Birmingham, England, sent Roger Whittaker his poem entitled "The Last Farewell", and this song became one of the selections to appear on the radio program. Webster was working for a company called "Lancaster Engraving" in Hockley. He was travelling home on the upper deck of a Midland bus on a cold and rainy night and wished he were somewhere warm instead. That is when the inspiration for the song came to him. Webster told the Coventry Evening Telegraph, according to an article published on the 10th September 1975, that he had been writing songs in his spare time for about 15 years. He had written "The Last Farewell" with Roger Whittaker in mind. But this was already before the singer had invited listeners to his radio program to submit poems.
