White Squall is a 1984 song by Stan Rogers

Stan Rogers

Stanley Allison "Stan" Rogers was a Canadian folk musician and songwriter.Rogers was noted for his rich, baritone voice and his finely crafted, traditional-sounding songs which were frequently inspired by Canadian history and the daily lives of working people, especially those from the fishing...

, about a young crewman being washed overboard (and presumably drowning) from a Great Lakes

Great Lakes

The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...

 ship, due to not following safety procedures. It is the 1st track on his posthumous CD From Fresh Water

From Fresh Water

From Fresh Water is a 1984 album by Stan Rogers. It was one of a series of concept albums Rogers intended to do about the regions of Canada...

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The narrator is an older sailor, who well knows the sudden weather changes upon the Great Lakes:

Now it's a thing that us old-timers know, in the sultry summer calm;

There comes a blow from nowhere, and it goes off like a bomb!

And a 15,000-tonner can be thrown upon her beam,

While the gale takes all before it with a scream.

While he laments it being "Just my luck to have the watch", he wistfully relates the story of a naïve, eager younger sailor. While the story gradually builds to its inevitable climax, each repeated chorus alludes to the tragedy to come:

But I told that kid a hundred times, Don't take the Lakes for granted!

They go from calm to 100 knots so fast they seem enchanted.

But tonight some red-eyed Wiarton

Wiarton, Ontario

Wiarton is a community in Bruce County, Ontario, at the western end of Colpoys Bay, an inlet off Georgian Bay, on the Bruce Peninsula. The community is part of the town of South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario....

 girl lies starin' at the wall,

And her lover's gone into a white squall.

As promised, the white squall strikes the ship, and the younger man is swept overboard, while the narrator watches helplessly, unable to move for fear of losing his own life. The song is then brought full circle to the first verse, which seems to haunt the narrator's thoughts as he repeats:

So it's just my luck to have the watch with nothing left to do

But watch the deadly waters glide as we roll north to The Sault

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Sault Ste. Marie is a city on the St. Marys River in Algoma District, Ontario, Canada. It is the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay, with a population of 74,948. The community was founded as a French religious mission: Sault either means "jump" or "rapids" in...

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I wonder when they'll turn again, and pitch us to the rail,

And whirl off one more youngster in the gale.

In the final repeat of the chorus, the narrator changes the lyric to, "And I tell these kids a hundred times, don't take the Lakes for granted", implying that this tale may be one of several deaths that he has witnessed over the years.