It took twenty years to build this fleet
Four years to lose the war
Millions dead and no one knows
What the dying was all for
The King’s run off to Holland
And they jailed the mutineers
Six months since the killing stopped
We were still anchored here
Maybe a country rose and fell in Oldenburg
God only knows
And all we saw was the rise and fall
Of the tides in Scapa Flow
We were ragged, we were dirty
Though we knew we didn’t care
Our only flag was a linen rag
As lank and lousy as our hair
Esprit de corps and dignity
They ran off with our hope
One day I robbed an officer
I sold his iron cross for soap
Maybe a country rose and fell in Oldenburg
God only knows
And all we saw was the rise and fall
Of the tides in Scapa Flow
The day was June the twenty first
And the year nineteen nineteen
The day the seacocks opened
Still the strangest I’ve yet seen
By semaphore and searchlight
We sent the signal on its way
Von Reuter’s still the only man
To sink a navy in a day
Maybe a country rose and fell in Oldenburg
God only knows
And all we saw was the rise and fall
Of the tides in Scapa Flow
Maybe a country rose and fell in Oldenburg
God only knows
And all we saw was the rise and fall
Of the tides in Scapa Flow
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Kris Drever Lyrics – Scapa Flow 1919