It means he set out from the River Clyde, with a cargo of coal.   
      
   Hope that clears that up. David.C and Rorbertdb are on the button lol.   
      
   J   
      
   On Friday, June 3, 2016 at 11:04:53 PM UTC+1, Joe Fineman wrote:   
   > robertdbarnettpe@gmail.com writes:   
   >   
   > > On Friday, July 27, 2001 at 3:45:26 PM UTC-4, Bazinkum wrote:   
   > >> From the song "Flowers Of Bermuda" by Stan Rogers, what does the   
   > >> second line -Twenty-one days from Clyde in coal- refer to?   
   > >>   
   > >> Clyde a place, I assume?   
   > >> Why is it "in coal"?   
   > >> Is the captain 21 years old, or did it take him 21 days to get to   
   > >> Bermuda?   
   > >>   
   > >> Thanks.   
   > > The ship is a collier (Nightingale)- that means she carries coal.   
   > > There's really no mystery here.   
   >   
   > Beware!  This reply to a 25-year-old inquiry is unlikely to reach its   
   > author.  I presume this posting is another result of the fact that   
   > Google has no notion of how newsgroups (used to) work.   
   >   
   > The current venue for inquiries of this kind is www.mudcat.org, the   
   > monster that swallowed rec.music.folk.   
   >   
   > The Clyde mentioned is a river in Scotland, passing thru Glasgow.   
   > --   
   > ---  Joe Fineman    joe_f@verizon.net   
   >   
   > ||:  In pene paritas.  :||   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)