C F
Let me tell you a story, it happened long ago
C G7
When the pines were dancing in the wind on the Mendocino shore
Am Em
The town lights were blazing, there were parties everywhere
F C G C
It was Christmas eve and joy was in the air
F
In the dark and stormy night someone heard the sound
C G7
Of something breaking on the rocks and a big ship going down
Am Em
Some said they saw a light some swore it was a star
F C G C
That shone out there in the night although it wasn't far
F
In the grey light of morning they walked along the sand
C G7
Finding pieces of the ship but no sign of her hands
Am Em
Except a tiny pair of shoes and a woman's ragged coat
F C G C
That lay there at the water's edge in the driftwood and the foam
F
Some said she sailed from India or the coast of Oregon
C G7
Some said by the size of her rigging it was some place far beyond
Am Em
But why she sailed into a port closed down so long ago
F C G C
Or if all on board were lost at sea no one seemed to know
F
The fire was crackling in the stove when he heard the wailing cry
C G7
Of a little baby in the night somewhere close outside
Am Em
He grabbed his gun and he left the house, he thought it was A cat
F C G C
But he found a woman with a babe, fallen in her tracks
F
She was cold, her eyes were glazed, her skin was ghostly white
C G7
He tried to make her speak, she just handed him the child
Am Em
And then she passed into that endless sleep
F C G C
And he knelt beside her on the trail and he began to weep
F
Rushing home he stoked the fire and he bathed the weary babe
C G7
Its skin was brown as a hazel nut, its eyes of greenest jade
Am Em
In age it was about two years or maybe six months more
F C G C
But he had the look of a wise old man who'd been this way before
F
And so he stayed and he filled the heart of the man that he called dad
C G7
And Shipwreck Star was the only name that boy-child ever had
Am Em
His mama, she lies buried in the manzanita and the pines
F C G C
Where the wild azaleas bloom in the fog-bound summertime