Nautical Disaster

This song is not about the Dieppe raid, nor is it "about" any other disaster. It is about a relationship that went bad, and the nautical disaster, occurring in a dream, is a metaphor for the relationship.

The metaphorical disaster need not correspond to any real event. Whether it does will always be a matter of debate, as the lyric gives no concrete evidence.

Certainly, the disaster is not the Dieppe raid. Dieppe was a military disaster, not a nautical one; the dead died on the beach, not in the water; the total Canadian dead numbered 907 (with 1,946 taken prisoner), not 4,000; the raid took place in the morning, not "one afternoon"; it occured on, not off, the coast of France; and the survivors weren't abandoned.

The sinking of the Bismarck is the most popular candidate for the "real" disaster, but few of the facts agree with the song. The Bismarck was sunk some 600 miles from France, in the open ocean; the ship sank in the morning, not in the afternoon; and the crew was just over 2,000, not 4,500. The only fact that agrees is the important one: that the survivors were abandoned, because of concerns that U-Boats lurking in the area might have sunk ships dallying to rescue the survivors.

It is very hard to find a nautical disaster that actually did drown 4,500, as few ships carry that many people. (Even the Titanic sinking drowned only 1,500 or so). But there is one candidate: the obscure sinking of the troopship Lancastria in 1940 as it took on Allied troops retreating from France. The Lancastria went down in the afternoon, at anchor off the French port of Ste. Nazaire, and although the exact casualty count isn't known, it is believed that 3,000 to 6,000 drowned because of a lack of lifeboats. The facts correspond very closely, but the sinking is an obscure, little known one, so this could be simple coincidence. One notable fact is that the sinking is obscure because Churchill cast a veil of secrecy over it, including a gag order given to survivors.

Whether the disaster in question was the Bismarck or the Lancastria doesn't really matter. Downie could have mixed up the facts around the Bismarck, and he may never have heard of the Lancastria. The only thing that makes the two sinkings interesting is that they suggest alternative interpretations of the song.

Very little actually happens in the song. We have our narrator recounting the details of a horrific dream (to a person he addresses as "dear"), and how he was interrupted by a telephone call. This call is apparently from a third party (he said it's out there), although sometimes Downie sings "you," suggesting the caller was the same person he is addressing. Finally, the narrator assures "Susan" (who we have to assume is also the person addressed as "dear") that he barely remembers their conversation -- but by suggesting that the conversation is as faint as his vivid dream, he also suggests that his assurance is false.

There isn't enough here to pin a specific meaning on the song. The disaster may represent a breakup, or merely a fight (as "I relished the fray/and the screaming filled my head all day" suggests). The assurance offered Susan may be at her behest (as "if you like" suggests, like Churchill's gag order to the Lancastria's survivors), or it may not. The phone call may be from a third party, in line with the printed lyrics, or from Susan herself, in line with the sung (or at least, heard) lyrics. Perhaps he abandons the survivors by choice, as in the Bismarck sinking, or perhaps because he is incapable of rescuing them all, as in the Lancastria sinking.

Regardless, what the lyric leaves us with is the survivor of some relationship disaster assuring his partner (or former partner) that all is forgotten, when clearly it isn't.