#01591
The Loss Of The Titanic (Kenneth Peacock)

See also: Titanic (MacEdward Leach)

And also: The Mighty Titanic (Michael T Wall)

And also: The Titanic (Husbands And Wives)

The beauty of the White Star Line,
the Titanic, sailed the seas
From a dock in old Southampton
with a fair and pleasant breeze;
With full twelve hundred passengers
their friends did bid adieu,
They stood and watched her on the pier
till she was lost in view.

Some wealthy New York millionaires,
their names are handed down,
To join her in Southampton
from their homes in New York town,
Some emigrants of every race,
twelve hundred souls or more,
Some hailed from sunny Italy,
some more from Aryan shore.

We shipped our course for Newfoundland
and headed for Cape Race,
Like every ocean liner
from their home ports to take;
And Captain Smith stood on the bridge
his orders to obey,
Not thinking any danger was,
he plowed the seas that day.

And when she steamed in near Cape Race,
on that wild and rugged shore,
She struck what's called a growler
and sank to rise no more;
The life-boats they were quickly launched
by seamen true and brave,
The women first put in the boats
their precious lives to save.

To save the females from the wreck
the crew worked all their might,
The cries of helpless children
on the sinking ship that night;
The millionaires stood manly pluck
and boldly stepped aside,
To let the weak ones take the boat,
like heroes brave they died.

You men of wealth and luxury
who showed no sign of fear,
But like brave heroes stood their post
when death was drawing near;
They showed the stuff that made a man
and calmly did death face,
With all the pluck and energy
of the Anglo-Saxon race.

Their names shall live in history,
brave heroes one and all,
Those true-born British heroes
did again their duty call;
And Captain Smith and his brave crew,
they never left the deck,
But saved the helpless passengers
and went down with the wreck.

####.... Author unknown. Variant of The Titanic [Laws D24] Native American Balladry, p.172 (G Malcolm Laws, 1964/1950) ....####
Collected in 1951 by Kenneth Peacock from Edward (Ned) Rice [1916-2002] of Cape Broyle, NL, and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Vol 3, pp.965-966, by the National Museum of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.

A variant was also sung by Mrs John Powers [b.ca.1916] of Tors Cove, NL, and published as Titanic in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada, ©2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).

Kenneth Peacock noted that those who are familiar with the motion picture and television versions of this disaster may be interested to see how a familiar story appears in traditional ballad form. Unfortunately, the text of this variant is rather poor - what with all those New York millionaires calmly facing death "with all the pluck and energy of the Anglo-Saxon race."

From the Dictionary Of Newfoundland English:
Growler - piece of floating ice hazardous to vessels because of its indeterminate size and/or instability.

From Wikipedia:
The sinking of the RMS Titanic occurred on the night of 14 April through to the morning of 15 April 1912, in the north Atlantic Ocean four days into the ship's maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. The largest passenger liner in service at the time, Titanic had an estimated 2,224 people on board when she struck an iceberg at around 23:40 (ship's time) on Sunday, 14 April 1912. Her sinking two hours and forty minutes later at 02:20 (05:18 GMT) on Monday, 15 April resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 people, which made it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.

See more NL shipwreck songs.

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