Scapa Flow

In the islands of Orkney where the sky meets the sea

And the great Atlantic storms blow

Nature’s own harbour walls shelter the peaceful

Waters of Scapa Flow

Gannets spiral through spindrift and dive down to feast

On the herring and mackerel shoals

And by night Merry Dancers light up the peaceful

Waters of Scapa Flow

But when the North Sea’s fury drives in from the East

And the westerlies rattle and roll

Mariners all give thanks for the peaceful

Waters of Scapa Flow

Then the men of war came with their slaughtering guns

To send sailors and ships far below

Torpedoed and scuttled down in the deep troubled

Waters of Scapa Flow

When the wars were all done and the slaughtering ceased

They were no longer friend or foe

Just two thousand souls resting in peaceful

Waters of Scapa Flow

So leave the waves to the cormorants, gannets and geese

Leave the deep to the mackerel shoals

Let no more men of war trouble the peaceful

Waters of Scapa Flow