Two in the morning dry-dock town
The river rolls in the night
Little gypsy moth she's all tied down
She quiver in the wind and the light

Yeah and a sailing ship is just held down in chains
From the lazy days of sail
She's just a lying there in silent pain
He lean on the tourist rail

A mother and her baby and the college of war
In the concrete graves
You never wanna fight against the river law
Nobody rules the waves

Yeah and on a night when the lazy wind is a-wailing
Around the Cutty Sark
The single handed sailor goes sailing
Sailing away in the dark

He's upon the bridge on the self same night
The mariner of dry dock land
Two in the morning but there's one green light
And a man on a barge of sand

She's gonna slip away below him
Away from the things he's done
But he just shouts, "Hey man what you call this thing"
He could have said, "Pride of London"

On a night when the lazy wind is a-wailing
Around the Cutty Sark
Yeah the single handed sailor goes sailing
Sailing away in the dark


Lyrics submitted by Dasch

Single Handed Sailor Lyrics as written by Mark Knopfler

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Single-Handed Sailor song meanings
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  • +6
    General Comment

    I listened to this song many times years ago without understanding the meaning. Then I moved to London and visited Greenwich with the reference to the Cutty Sark in this song in the back of my mind. Listening to the song and reading the lyrics I later realised that it all makes sense now. If you are ever in London, visit Greenwich, take a copy of the lyrics to this song and see how many references you can find.

    This is my interpretation:

    The "dry-dock town" is Greenwich in London and the river is the Thames. The "Little gypsy moth" is Sir Francis Chichester's Gipsy Moth IV in which he circumnavigated the globe single handedly. The boat is quite small and is overshadowed by the impressive "Cutty Sark" tea clipper which is also in dry dock nearby.

    At the time Knopfler wrote this song, the Gipsy Moth IV was in a dry dock at Greenwich "she’s all tied down", "a sailing ship just held down in chains" and slowly rotting away in quite a poor state "lying there in silent pain" after years of neglect and walked on by millions of tourist feet "He lean on the tourist trail".

    I am not sure who the "mother and her baby" are but the "college of war" is the Royal Naval College at Greenwich.

    The second half of the song seems to have darker overtones. Chichester hated the boat ("hey man, what do you call this thing") and said 'Gipsy Moth IV has no sentimental value for me at all' ("he could have said 'pride of London'") and sold it for 1 pound and a gin and tonic.

    In June 2005 the Gipsy Moth IV was relaunched after a full restoration and is now sailing around the world again, this time crewed by a group of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Sailing away in the dark.

    Skippy19on February 21, 2006   Link
  • +3
    General Comment

    An ode to Sir Francis Chichester, who skippered \"Gypsy Moth IV\" around the world single-handedly in the late 1960\'s at about 80 years of age. Gypsy Moth IV is moored permanently on land next to the Cutty Sark at Grreenwich, London. The guitar riff is reminiscent of Dave Gilmour\'s lead solo at the end of Pink Floyd\'s \"Another Brick in the Wall Part 2\".

    chrisb1on April 23, 2005   Link
  • +3
    General Comment

    Mark Knofler is the single handed sailor. He can't sleep and is wandering Greenwich at 2 am and the scene unfolds. The mother is pushing a baby carriage for some unkown reason on one side, the "College of War" is on the other and between them are the sad sights of two great ships held down in chains.

    The line "What do you call this thing" is indeed spoken by a man sliding by on a barge, not by the man on the river bank in Greenwich. The river is rolling away in the night (the Thames is tidal at this point) so the barge is slipping away downriver. A boat going downriver shows its starboard side to Greenwich, so from Greenwich you would see a green light on the boat.

    Perhaps Mark Knofler is thinking of going it alone rather than staying with the band at this point, perhaps he's conttemplating the fact that great success can end in concrete graves or, worse empty tourist-trail popularity.

    In any case he is the single handed sailor in dry-dock land who could say that these boats are the pride of london but he just wanders off away from the scene in the dark without resolving anything.

    seanbradyon January 14, 2007   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Yeah, but what actually happens in the song, and how do the two verses hang together? I'd say the man "upon the bridge" in verse 2 is not Sir Francis Chichester at all, but a nameless guy who is a shadow of his former self. He's lost his way, he's vaguely decided to quit by hopping into the river, why else should he visit the boat at two in the morning? We don't get to know the reason, there's just a veiled reference to "the things he's done" and which he cannot live with. So he cries out, presumably drunk, "Hey man, what you call this thing?", jumps or falls in, the current takes him, and the Thames becomes, in a sense, the river of Lethe for this single-handed sailor.

    Sure, this is a bit speculative, but Mark Knopfler (remember, he's a literate man) is really using the same "iceberg method" as Ernest Hemingway here, and many of the songs on "Communique" are stories about men who try and fail ("News") or veer into the psychopathic ("Where Do You Think You're Going?"). Two years later, Mark would return to this vein in "Private Investigation", also a song about a disturbed man. Beautiful guitar work. I love the calypso/blues feel of the solo at the end.

    tinderboxon June 02, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Yes, I agree with the previous answers, but I also think the the "mother and her baby" is another reference to the big Cutty Sark and the baby Gypsy Moth, right outside the Naval College of War.

    Incidentally, the Cutty Sark has just been extremely badly damaged by fire, possibly started deliberately. It made me think of this song again, after many years.

    uffyon May 24, 2007   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    It could be allegorical as others have said. However it could also refer to the ghost of Sir Francis Chichester that goes "sailing away in the dark".

    chrisb1on March 20, 2010   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    I love all the contributions, thanks folks.

    The only bit I would want to contribute is - as Skippy19 also mentioned - I think the single-handed sailor is Chichester himself and the song isn't so much that he was actually there at 2:00am (he could have been several times!), but more that if he were there this is just Mark's imagining what Chichester would have done/said. It's really a negative or forsaken attitude portrayed toward the sailboat (Gypsy Moth IV) which was factual - Chichester disliked it very much after the global journey and didn't hesitate to quickly detach from it for several reasons ("...sailing away in the dark"). Found this after reading up a bit on the topic.

    Mother and baby are just referring to the Cutty Sark (mother, larger) and the Gypsy Moth IV (baby, being much smaller). They were next to each other at one point, perhaps they still are.

    discosauron July 05, 2018   Link
  • +1
    My Interpretation

    The song has two distinct parts, broken down by the verses.

    The first part sets the general scene, 2 am down along the Thames where the Cutty Sark and Gypsy Moth IV were preserved at the time. The two are tied down in chains and dry-docked, in pain in their captivity away from the sea, but right next to the river. The lazy wind winds around them. The mother and baby are the two vessels, in concrete graves (dry-dock) next to the Royal Navy's College of War at Greenwich. Gypsy Moth IV was used by Sir Francis Chichester for a solo round-the-world voyage in the 1960s: a successful single-handed sailor.

    At the time of the song, the UK was in a severe recession and times were pretty tough. This permeates a lot of Knopfler's songs of the time, including this one, and also means that maintenance was lacking on the two vessels. Once the pride of the seas, they no longer rule the waves. No-one does.

    The second part moves to the particular, coming from the allegory of the vessels trapped beside the river they once sailed. The single-handed sailor is a man who is something of a loner in a relationship that is slowly dying around him. He's trapped and tied down with the chains of the relationship, both of them are feeling the pain, and he's trying to navigate for the two of them, but he's a dry-dock mariner: sailing the wider waters isn't something he can manage. There's the chance she will slip away from under him (she is the allegorical ship), and although he will try to act the part of the expert mariner, is just a front. He might as well have described his relationship as the 'Pride of London,' as it makes no difference to its sailing prospect. But he keeps trying to sail away, in the dark.

    Of the two vessels, Cutty Sark was a super-swift tea clipper, and Gypsy Moth IV was a small and nimble cruising yacht. That's what he wants to sail. But he's the only one who thinks that he has a green light (meaning he's on the right side of the channel), and rather than a clipper, he's on a barge of sand: slow and ponderous. The one green light might also suggest that he's only half there, as there is no corresponding red port light to the starboard green one.

    As has been pointed out in other comments, a lot of Knopfler's songs of the period deal with people in failing (or no) relationships, and this is another. But the bigger picture that he paints as an allegory of his core story is fascinating, plus there is the business of it coming from London landmarks and history.

    nwjh195711on March 19, 2021   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Though I've been to London, I wasn't fortunate to stay long enough to check out the riverboats of the Thames. I wonder if anyone who knows can confirm the location of the Riverboat "Pride of London" ( thamesriverboats.net/page4.htm ) and whether it might have any relation at all to this song.

    Seems likely, it is mentioned in a different 'scene' (two in the morning on the self same night), so he may not be talking about the Gypsy Moth in this scene. Perhaps he's strolled down the Thames a bit and come upon the Pride of London.

    This is one of my favorite songs, and Mark Knopfler one of my favorite artists forever. As Douglas Adams once ventured, he could charm the angels down from heaven with his guitar.

    -=Trickyelf>

    trickyelfon April 18, 2009   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation

    Obviously a nod to Sir Francis Chichester and his solo sailing achievements on the Gipsy Moth IV.

    As others have pointed out, the tangible is well presented in the song, with the Gipsy Moth, Cutty Sark, their dry dock prisons and reference to the Royal Naval College at Greenwich.

    I do think there's a narrative open to interpretation about looking back at a better time - the song mentions the "lazy days of sail", as if looking back on better days through rose tinted glasses.

    To me, this suggests an underlying theme of regret, the protagonist is hurting and looking back on his own better days, unable to accept where he is in life right now.

    The line "You never want to fight against the river law" suggests the character is in emotional pain, much like the silent pain of the ships in dry dock. The next line, "Nobody rules the waves" seems to hint at the broad and open opportunities available when one is young and carefree, but now he can only look longingly from the confines of the well structured "river life" where he now finds himself.

    As such he longs to be that single handed sailor, able to disappear into the night without consequence, but the confines of his life are now a river "law" which keeps him to the inland waterways and predictability of every day life and relationships.

    The single handed sailor that goes sailing away in the dark is again the protagonist, but only in his own mind.

    The next line, "He's upon the bridge on the self same night, the mariner of dry dock land" is yet another admission to the incarcerated emotional state of the protagonist who is now only able to reminisce of his former days.

    At the sight of the sand barge passing he imagines himself stood on the barge and would welcome even such a lowly opportunity to experience his former days heading towards open opportunity. The green light signifying that the passing barge is heading towards open sea from the perspective of somebody on the south bank of the Thames, where our character finds himself.

    The line "she's gonna slip away below him" could be a reference to a failing relationship, in that his other half has taken enough from him. Perhaps he's so living in the past that he can't form a future with her, and he has symbolically scuttled the relationship. So she is now resigned to simply slip away from him as if a vessel sinking beneath the waves.

    Perhaps this has some reference to Wilfred Dowman whose wife left him after he started an affair with Catherine Courtauld, who was largely responsible for saving the Cutty Sark as she had the wealth to purchase it from its owners in the 1920s.

    The next line "hey man, what do you call this thing", I haven't settled upon a meaning for yet, nor the next line making reference to the "Pride of London". It might be again reference to the Cutty Sark before it was purchased by the Dowman family. It had been renamed Ferreira and was in Falmouth at the time and was only because Wilfred recognised it as the Cutty Sark that lead them to purchase the ship and restore it. Catherine eventually sold the ship for a very small fee to the Thames Nautical College and it obviously became something that London could be proud to host.

    So this could be a reference to the fact that a once great and respected tea clipper such as the Cutty Sark almost disappeared into obscurity that somebody might ask, "what do you call this thing" and not know of its heritage and history.

    It could also just be reference to the contempt Sir Francis felt for the Gipsy Moth, though.

    Anyway, a good psychologist would have a field day reading my interpretation, I'm sure.

    JensAddictionson October 13, 2022   Link

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