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She was just a new KANSEN and she surely shook with pride.
She checked off her rigging and made sure everything was right.
She had to sit and listen to those awful laughing gulls.
You ain't gonna sail no more.
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die.
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die.
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die.
She ain't gonna sail no more.
"Is everybody happy?" cried the Commander looking up.
Our heroin feebly answered, "Yes", and then they stood her up.
She jumped into the icy water, her anchor chain behind.
And she ain't gonna sail no more.
[Chorus]
She steamed on, she headed for the high seas, she left the coast behind
She felt the wind, she felt the water, she felt the awful cold.
The chain of her anchor reeled off and wrapped around her legs.
And she ain't gonna sail no more.
[Chorus]
The mast swung around her neck, the turrets cracked her dome.
The rigging cables were tied in knots around her skinny bones.
Her lungs filled with water, she hurtled to the bottom.
And she ain't gonna sail no more.
[Chorus]
The days she lived and loved and laughed kept running through her mind.
She thought about her sister ship, the one she’d leave behind.
She thought about the divers and wondered what they'd find.
And she ain't gonna sail no more.
[Chorus]
The salvage ship was on the spot, the tugs were running wild.
Vestal jumped and screamed with glee, rolled up her sleeves and smiled.
For it had been a week or more since last a rigging had failed.
And she ain't gonna sail no more.
[Chorus]
She hit bottom, the sound was "Crunch," her blood went spurting high.
Her fleet mates, they were heard to say, "A helluva way to die."
She lay there rolling 'round in the welter of her wreck.
And she ain't gonna sail no more.
[Chorus]
There was blood upon the turrets, there were brains upon the bridge.
Intestines were a-dangling from the torpedo tubes.
She was a mess, they fished her out and poured her from her boots.
And she ain't gonna sail no more.
[Chorus]