The Ship That Never Returned is an 1865 song written by Henry Clay Work, about a ship that left a harbor and never came back. No reason for why the ship never returned is given in the words of the song. A plausible explanation for a ship that never returned is that for as long as men put to sea to the present day, ships were lost at sea without a trace due to weather, unseaworthiness, or other causes—even piracy. In the 1800s, with no weather forecasting, radar or radio, this was not an uncommon event.
The melody was adapted in "Charlie on the MTA," created in 1948, as a campaign song for Walter A. O'Brian about a man who couldn't get off a Boston subway train because, rather than change all the turnstiles, the M.T.A added an exit fare—Charlie did not have the extra nickel to get off the train. The Kingston Trio recorded the song in 1959 (as "M.T.A.") and had a hit with the recording in the same year. The tune also formed the basis of "Wreck of the Old 97", about a 1903 train wreck.
Famous quotes containing the words ship and/or returned:
“If the oarsmen of a fast-moving ship suddenly cease to row, the suspension of the driving force of the oars doesn’t prevent the vessel from continuing to move on its course. And with a speech it is much the same. After he has finished reciting the document, the speaker will still be able to maintain the same tone without a break, borrowing its momentum and impulse from the passage he has just read out.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C)
“We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)