"Oh the engine's gone dead," cried the men who work there

And she passed up the dock on the wide Delaware

Then the ship ran aground and the oil got away

And they penned that report, "The Big Spill" on that day



It was hundreds of thousands of gallons galore

Stretching thirty-two miles down the Delaware shore

There were geese in the marshes out looking for food

They got stuck where they stood in the oncoming crude



And it's oil, oil

Ah, drifting to the sea

Oil, oil

Don't buy it at the station, you can have it now for free

Just come on down to the shoreline where the water used to be



In the well-charted waters of the Nantucket shoals

There's a ship run aground full of oil, we were told

In a week's worth of rough winter weather and waves

The boat started cracking and it could not be saved



It was seven-point-six million gallons this time

Consider the danger and think of the crime

As it poured out a slick stretching into the tide

Over hundred-miles and yes, it came deep, it came wide



And it's oil, oil

Oil pouring in the sea

Oil, oil

Oh, don't buy it at the station, you can have it now for free

Just come on down to the shoreline where the water used to be



There's talk of some writing found in the ship's log

Saying one of the helmsmen's unfit for his job

And the ship's gyro compass was six degrees shy

Their charts were outdated but they, they tried to get by



And you know it's oil, oil

Yeah, pouring in the sea

Oil, oil

Don't buy it at the station, you can have it now for free

Just come on down to the shoreline where the water used to be

Yeahhh



Now both of these ships, like a great many more

Got registered in through Liberian doors

Inspections are quick and regulations are few

Just sign on the line and go find you a crew, yes



One of these ships was the Olympic Games

The Argo Merchant was the other one's name

Well it's sad, but it's true, things got worse for the seas

'Cause I ain't even mentioned Amoco Cadiz



Amoco Cadiz, between England and France

The big super tanker out there taking it's chance

With its one-hundred-thousand black tons of the slime

Amoco Cadiz spilled the most of all time



Yes, ya' know it's oil, oil

Man, it's creepin' in the sea

Oil, oil

Oh, don't buy it at the station, you can have it now for free

Just come on down to the shoreline where the water used to be



Now down in the Gulf east of Mexico Way

There's something gone wrong, so the papers all say

A Mexican oil well is leaking it's goo

They say it's the worse that things have ever come to



Yes it's gallons of sludge, sixty-million and more

It's cruising and oozing towards many a shore

Yes, things have got bad but they will probably get worse

If you can't drink the oil, oh, you might, you might die of thirst



Because it's oil, it's oil

And it's creeping in the sea

Oil, oil

Don't buy it at the station, you can have it now for free

Just come on down to the shoreline where the water used to be