The Oil Song

Oh, the engine's gone dead, cried the men who were there
She passed at the dock on the White Delaware
The ship ran aground and the oil got away
But they did not report the big spill on that day
It was hundreds of thousands of gallons galore
Stretching thirty-two miles down the Delaware shore
There were geese and the morses out looking for food
They got stuck where they stood in the oncoming crude
And it's oil (oil), oil (oil)
Yeah, and it's dripping in the sea

Oil (oil), oil (oil)
Don't buy it at the station, you can have it now for free
Just come on down to the shoreline where the water used to be

In the well-charted waters of the Nantucket shoals
Was a ship run aground, full of oil we were told
And a week's worth of rough winter weather and the waves
The boat started cracking and it could not be saved
It was 7.6 million gallons this time
Consider the danger and think of the crime
As it poured out a slick stretching into the tide
For over one hundred miles it came deep, it came wide
And it's oil (oil), oil (oil)

Yes, it's pouring in the sea
Oil (oil), oil (oil)
Don't buy it at the station, you can have it now for free
Just come on down to the shoreline where the water used to be

There's talk of some writing that's found in the ship's log
Saying that one of the helmsman's unfit for his job
The ship's gyrocompass was six degrees shy
The charts were outdated but they, they tried to get by
And it's oil (oil), oil (oil)
Yeah, pouring in the sea
Oil (oil), oil (oil)
Don't buy it at the station, you can have it now for free
Just come on down to the shoreline where the water used to be

Well, both of these ships, like a great many more
Got registered in through Liberian doors
Inspections are quick and regulations are few
It's just sign on the line and go find you a crew

One of these ships was the Olympic Games
The Argo Merchant was the other one's name
Well, it's sad but it's true, things got worse for the seas
I ain't even mentioned the Moco Cadiz
The Moco Cadiz between England and France
The big supertanker out there taking his chance
With his one hundred thousand black tons of the slime
The Moco Cadiz spilled the most of all time
And it's oil (oil), oil (oil)

Yeah, and it's creeping in the sea
Oil (oil), oil (oil)
Don't buy it at the station, you can have it now for free
Just come on down to the shoreline where the water used to be

Was down in the Gulf, east of Mexico way
Something went wrong so the papers did say
A Mexican oil well was leaking some goo
It was enough for the worst that things have ever come to
It was one hundred million gallons and more
Sleazing and a-easing

Well, it's oil (Oil), oil (Oil)
Yes, it's creeping in the sea
Oil (Oil), oil (Oil)
Don't buy it at the station
You can have it now for free

Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be

Oh