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Ships of Shame

[Steve Ashley]

Steve Ashley sang his anti-Trident song Ship of Shame in 2007 on his Topic CD Time and Tide. This recording was also included in 2009 on Topic’s 70 years anthology Three Score and Ten. He also sang it Live in Concert at The Bacon Theatre, Cheltenham, on 12 March 2006.

Lyrics

On patrol a ship of shame
Is down there in the deep
In control of nothing
It wanders while we sleep
On its bow a warrior name
It hides among the fishes
Its daily mission still the same
No hopes dreams or wishes

Vanguard and Victorious
Vigilant and Vengeance
The pride of England’s glory
Hides from our attention

Our scanners and our schools they take
Our welfare and our pensions
Our international rules they break
Our treaties and conventions
With forty eight warheads on board
And each one eight times meaner
Than the one that shamed the world at war
In the fires of Hiroshima

But Vanguard and Victorious
Vigilant and Vengeance
They’re waiting for an upgrade
And they’re standing to attention

At Faslane they take their time
To take their turn of duty
To drag their cargo through the brine
And undermine its beauty
When in Devonport the tritium
Leaked into the Tamar
In Plymouth town the fight was on
To eliminate the danger

But Vanguard and Victorious
Vigilant and Vengeance
They pay no mind to protest
They have only one intention

To go down, down, down, derry down
Down, down, down, derry down
They’ll drag us down, down, down, derry down

Acknowledgements

Song lyrics supplied by Steve Ashley. Thank you very much!