When I first heard this I thought – because of the band’s name Reparata and the Delrons, very Fireball XL5 or Space: 1999 – the ship must be a space ship. Of course the clanking bell should have let me know it was perhaps a river boat.
Though the song didn’t even make the US top 100 it reached no 13 in the UK.
Despite the clanking bell on the intro (signalling we are probably to think of a paddle-driven river boat) and the reference to the boat leaking this always put me in mind of Science Fiction. It must have been the futuristic sounding name Reparata and that Delrons making it seem like something from Captain Scarlet.