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.
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.