- published: 06 Sep 2012
- views: 1415
The Celtic Sea (Irish: An Mhuir Cheilteach; Welsh: Y Môr Celtaidd; Cornish: An Mor Keltek; Breton: Ar Mor Keltiek; French: La mer Celtique) is the area of the Atlantic Ocean off the south coast of Ireland bounded to the east by Saint George's Channel; other limits include the Bristol Channel, the English Channel, and the Bay of Biscay, as well as adjacent portions of Wales, Cornwall, Devon, and Brittany. The southern and western boundaries are delimited by the continental shelf, which drops away sharply. The Isles of Scilly are an archipelago of small islands in the sea.
The Celtic Sea takes its name from the Celtic heritage of the bounding lands to the north and east. The name was first proposed by E.W.L. Holt at a 1921 meeting in Dublin of fisheries experts from England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland and France. The northern portion of this sea had previously been considered as part of Saint George's Channel and the southern portion as an undifferentiated part of the "Southwest Approaches" to Britain. The need for a common name came to be felt because of the common marine biology, geology and hydrology. It was adopted in France before being common in the English-speaking countries. It was adopted by marine biologists and oceanographers, and later by petroleum exploration firms. It is named in a 1963 British atlas, but a 1972 article states "what British maps call the Western Approaches, and what the oil industry calls the Celtic Sea [...] certainly the residents on the western coast [of Great Britain] don't refer to it as such."
At the last minute everything was okay
We bought our tickets, we were on our way
It cost us six hundred and sixty-six Francs
But that didn't mean anything
On our way to Ireland on a French boat
And she had a Spanish captain
He welcomed us aboard and told us some jokes
We tried our best to laugh at them
He said, "Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no
We can't have any women on here
Don't you know, don't you know, don't you know, don't you know
Truckers are like pirates, my dear"
He said not to worry, it was only a joke
And he showed us to our room
And as I was throwing my pack on the bed
A man came in behind you
Said, "Hey, little lassie, are you alone?
Do you need some company?"
Then he saw me and he turned to leave
Sayin' he was sorry
We closed our door and we locked it shut
And jumped up on our fluffy beds
Blankets and pillows were luxury to us,
We had twenty-four hours of them
The captain he knocked and he woke us up
He told us it was time to eat
There was cake, there were fries, there were all sorts of drinks
And then we looked out at the sea
The waves, the waves, the waves, they rose
Up, up thirty feet
Then down, down, down they'd go
And our stomachs started to sink
The captain, the captain, well he saved our lives
He gave us some tiny white pills
We went to sleep for the rest of the ride,