USS Saginaw Words and music by Joe Ficklin © Feb 2024FAWM 2025-2: The USS Saginaw Am E Am E Am E It's a lonely spit of rock and sand / And a hidden reef that chewed our ship Am E Am E Am E Leaving eighty-seven men on a barren land / While a crew of five undertook the trip Dm Am E Am On the captain's gig with sail and oar / A thousand miles 'cross open sea Dm Am E Am Where is the crew of the Saginaw? / Where is the atoll of Kure? G Am E Am Where is the wreck of the Saginaw / Once the pride of the navy's fleet Dm Am E Am Broke on the rocks of Kure atoll / Survival now our only goal / G Am E Am Am7 Am While yet we breathe there is no defeat / We are the crew of the Saginaw! Am E Am E Am E Seven months on Midway's shore / Blast the coral and clear the reef Am E Am E Am E Our mission done we sailed once more / In fifty miles we came to grief Dm Am E Am A lonely outpost last in line / We went to check for castaways Dm Am E Am But damn the current hid a spine / And we fell under Neptune's gaze REFRAIN Am E Am E Am E October then of Seventy / For twenty days we mourned our luck Am E Am E Am E 'Til Talbot undertook to sea / With four brave men they eastward struck Dm Am E Am It took them just a month to sail / Fifteen hundred miles due Dm Am E Am And then on Kauai's breakers fell / Where four men drowned, but one got through REFRAIN Am E Am E Am E On Christmas day the steamers flew / From Honolulu's harbor fair Am E Am E Am E A week to reach our stranded crew / Another week to return there Dm Am E Am With word of Talbot's sacrifice / And Coxswain Halford's bravery Dm Am E Am We'll lift a glass and buy a round / To men who have survived the sea REFRAIN