The song is about sailors or fishermen who went up against a storm in their boat and lost their lives. As the song implies they made their living from the ocean(which probably means they were fishermen). This would have made a perfect song to be in the closing credits to the movie "a perfect storm" since it parallels that movie in a way that is so similar it's kind of creepy. I bet the people who made that film had no idea of this song or Gentle Giant though. Oh well.