Ballad Of The Great Eastern chords by Sting

• Difficulty: Intermediate 💪

Key: Gm

Chorus:
Gm                    F
In 18 hundred and 59, the engineer Brunel
Gm                                    Dm
Would build the greatest ship afloat, and rule the ocean's swell
B                         C
19,000 tons of steel they used to shape the mighty keel
Eb                                    F
Forged inside the smelter where they made the gates of Hell
Gm
And the name upon the contract, Isambard Brunel


Verse:
Gm                           F
As day-by-day the monster grew, the engineer Brunel
Gm                                 Dm
Would watch the Devil's handiwork, and woe betide a man who shirks
B                                  C
Or slows the pace to build the keel, 19,000 tons of steel
Eb                               F
Anyone with eyes to see is but a bride of Hell
G                                             Gm
And the name upon the draftsman's chart, Isambard Brunel
Eb                                 F
A riveter was on the hull with his apprentice lad
Cm                                      Dm
He'd served his time with the older man, some say it was his dad
B                             C
200 men upon the shift but when the day is done
                          F           Dm
The count is hundred 98, before the setting sun
B                                            C
They searched the yard all through the night until the morning bell
Eb                                 F
No more delays are countenanced by Isambard Brunel
B                                C
And so they work a double shift, to make the time in full
 Eb                            Gm
No mention of the missing men, they seal the double hull

Interlude:

Gm F Gm Dm

G                                    F
The ship was launched upon the tide and all the townsfolk cheered
Cm Dm7
A brass band played but not a word of omens they had feared
    Cm                                Bb
But before the afternoon was out, the celebration wrecked
Eb                                    F           Dm
A dignitary clutched his heart, and collapsed upon the deck
Bb                                   C
No doctors could revive him as the telegraphs would tell
Eb                         G
And the name upon the coffin, Isambard Brunel


Em                         Gm
And now upon the open sea, the mighty ship did plough
A7                          Bm
But many feared the darkness, in the shadow of its prow
G                            A
An explosion on the lower deck, would take the souls of five
C              Db               D
With a growing superstition among the sailors still alive
Em                                 D
The captain and his boy are lost while rowing to the shore
Em                             Bm
The crew will threaten mutiny and say they'll work no more
G                                      A
They began to say the ship was cursed, they hadn't even seen the worst
C                                  D
They'd signed on able-bodied men, but they wouldn't sail to Hell
C                                        Em
When the name upon the manifest is Isambard Brunel


N.C.

For 14 years that ship will sail, misfortune taken hard

The owners barely find a crew to reach the breakers' yard

And as they take the plates apart, unseal the double hull

The breakers call the foreman over, they'd found a human skull

And then they find the younger man, forced to understand

That in the hour of their torment, he'd reached his father's hand


Chorus:
Gm                    F
In 18 hundred and 59, the engineer Brunel
Gm                                    Dm
Would build the greatest ship afloat, and rule the ocean's swell
B                         C
The final shift was over and the breakers hammers fell
Eb                                    F
and the name upon the manifest the contract signed in hell
C                                                 Gm
Was the same as on the drafttsmans chart, Isambard Brunel


Outro:

Gm F Gm Dm