Robert Mackenzie   32 men on a Great Lakes boat   Quit the pier at Thunder Bay   28,000 tons of coal    On a cold November day   800 feet and 10 more long   80 feet across   The steel mills of Detroit    Our destination through the frost      At 2 AM on the 2nd   Waves were runnin' up to 40 feet   Winds were blowing 60 miles   Our engines crankin' heat   At 3:13 we took a wave    Our wheelhouse left behind   The radar slipped beneath the waves    And we were runnin' blind   Hear me call across the waves   If I don't come home tonight   I will make it home some day      (Steel boats and iron men)   32 down on the Robert Mackenzie   (Steel boats and iron men)   32 down on the Robert Mackenzie   (Steel boats and iron men)   32 down on the Robert Mackenzie      A captain name of Phillips    Seekin' shelter from the storm   Turned us south of Bête Grise Bay   By way of Keweenaw Point   But the wind was blowing at such a rate   We ended up driftin' north   A wave broke over a knife of rock   Six Fathom Shoal      Mackenzie she was cut in half   The stern she rammed the bow   The men were caught in metal jaws   Flames burned out of hell   Stern kept runnin' all her lights ablaze   Not one man would be found   Captain's last transmission read    32 men down   32 men down      Hear me call across the waves    If I don't come home tonight   I will make it home some day      (Steel boats and iron men)   32 down on the Robert Mackenzie   (Steel boats and iron men)   32 down on the Robert Mackenzie   (Steel boats and iron men)   32 down on the Robert Mackenzie   Down Down Down Down Down Down Down Down      And they call across the waves   If I don't come home tonight    I will make it home some day      Yes, I call across the waves   If i don´t come home tonight   I will make it home some day