Oil
Forbert Steve Lyrics

Oh the engine's gone dead, cried the men who work there
The workers noticed that the engine has stopped working.

And she passed up the dock on the wide Delaware
The ship traveled along the Delaware River.

Then the ship ran aground and the oil got away
The ship hit the bottom of the river and the oil it carried spilled.

And they penned that report, "The Big Spill" on that day
The incident was documented in a report called "The Big Spill."

It was hundreds of thousands of gallons galore
There were a huge amount of gallons of oil.

Stretching thirty-two miles down the Delaware shore
The oil spread along a 32-mile stretch of the Delaware River's shore.

There were geese in the marshes out looking for food
Birds were in search of food in the marshes.

They got stuck where they stood in the oncoming crude
The birds got trapped by the incoming oil.

And it's oil, oil Ah, drifting to the sea
Oil spills into the sea.

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
The oil is available for free at the shoreline, but it's harmful and you shouldn't buy it.

In the well-charted waters of the Nantucket shoals
This refers to an area of sea off the coast of Massachusetts.

There's a ship run aground full of oil, we were told
A ship carrying oil has crashed on the rocks and is stranded.

In a week's worth of rough winter weather and waves
The weather conditions were challenging for a week.

The boat started cracking and it could not be saved
The ship was damaged beyond repair and couldn't be saved.

It was seven-point-six million gallons this time
Seven-point-six million gallons of oil were spilled in this incident.

Consider the danger and think of the crime
This kind of man-made disaster is a dangerous and criminal act.

As it poured out a slick stretching into the tide
The oil created a slick that extended out to sea.

Over hundred-miles and yes, it came deep, it came wide
The oil extended over 100 miles out to sea.

There's talk of some writing found in the ship's log
There are discussions about a message discovered in the ship's log.

Saying one of the helmsmen's unfit for his job
The writer in the log mentioned that one of the helmsmen was not capable enough.

And the ship's gyro compass was six degrees shy
The ship's gyro compass was off by six degrees.

Their charts were outdated but they, they tried to get by
The ship's charts were not updated, but they tried to use what they had.

Now both of these ships, like a great many more
The earlier mentioned ships are part of many such cases.

Got registered in through Liberian doors
The ships were registered through Liberian channels.

Inspections are quick and regulations are few
The inspection process is quick, and there are not many regulations.

Just sign on the line and go find you a crew, yes
All one needs to do is sign up and find a crew to operate the ship.

One of these ships was the Olympic Games The Argo Merchant was the other one's name
The ships named the Olympic Games and Argo Merchant were among the many that faced accidents.

Well it's sad, but it's true, things got worse for the seas 'Cause I ain't even mentioned Amoco Cadiz Amoco Cadiz, between England and France
The oceans have gone through worse with incidents like the spill from Amoco Cadiz that happened between England and France.

The big super tanker out there taking it's chance With its one-hundred-thousand black tons of the slime Amoco Cadiz spilled the most of all time
Amoco Cadiz was a huge oil tanker that had spilled the largest amount of oil of all time.

Now down in the Gulf east of Mexico Way There's something gone wrong, so the papers all say A Mexican oil well is leaking it's goo
There's a problem in the Gulf east of Mexico with an oil well leaking oil.

They say it's the worse that things have ever come to Yes it's gallons of sludge, sixty-million and more
This is being considered the worst oil spill yet, with over 60 million gallons of oil leaked.

It's cruising and oozing towards many a shore Yes, things have got bad but they will probably get worse
The oil is spreading and making its way to many shores, and the situation is likely to worsen.

If you can't drink the oil, oh, you might, you might die of thirst Because it's oil, it's oil And it's creeping in the sea
The oil is making the sea increasingly polluted and unsafe, causing people to die of thirst because it's undrinkable.

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
The oil may be free, but it's harmful, and it's not advisable to buy it from the shoreline where water used to be.