- The China Clipper

Words: Kathleen Tardif
Tune: Peter Bellamy

O fair she was to look on, as some spirit of the sea
When she raced from China, homeward, with her freight of fragrant tea
And the shining swift bonito and the wide-winged albatross
Claimed kinship with the clipper beneath the Southern Cross

Close-hauled, with shortened canvas, swift and plunging she could sweep
Through the gale that rose to bar her wild pathway across the deep;
And before the gale blew over, half her drenched and driven crew
To the tune of Reuben Ranzo, hoisted topsail yards anew

From the haven of the present she has cleared and slipped away
Loaded deep and running free for the port of yesterday
And the cargo that she carried, ah! it was not China tea
She took with her all the wonder and romance of the sea.