"THOSE MIGHTY BEASTS OF HOLM"

CAHALEN MORRISON

https://cahalenmorrison.bandcamp.com/track/those-mighty-beasts-of-holm

 In the year 1918 when the war came tumbling down
All men that were spared were home to Scotland bound
The foaming shores of France all churned and lay there washed in red
The mauled the mamed on a namely ship instead

Across the channel wide and to the north she did sail
A sea of fire couldn’t slow her down, nor could the strongest gale
She sailed away from Kyle of Lochalsh on the last day of the year
Filled with all the eager boys, she was Lewis bound to steer

The sails were full on the Iolaire, as an eagle spreads it’s wings
They cut across the Minch’s deep, feeling rich as any king
But as the lights of the harbor came, as a beacon in the night
The waves they crashed and the sea it roared and they saw a dreadful sight

The captain cried an awful noise, a name they’d heard before
Then a sound came thundering like death knocking at your door
Below the waves all sleeping still, for nowhere did they roam
They’d laid in wait, like some crooked fate, those mighty Beasts of Holm

As the sea came rushing in, and the ship was sinking fast
Two hundred weary sailors swam and saw their home the last
Their leather boots like cannonballs pulled and tugged them down
And who the war had spared, the sea it claimed them now

In the year 1919, the first of days to come
The Iolaire in the harbor sat, for this war had not been won
The mast it stood one hundred yards, like a branch up toward the sky
The last tree out on Lewis stood, as tall and sad goodbye

All the island mothers walked, and combed the windy shores
Sons washed up one by one in twos and threes and fours
Below the waves all sleeping still, for nowhere did they roam
They’d laid in wait, like some crooked fate, those mighty Beasts of Holm