Print This Page#01095 Print This Page
Sung to: The Little Old Cabin In The Lane by W.S.Hays (1837-1907)
Oh, they built the ship Titanic
To sail the ocean blue,
And they thought they had a ship
That the water would never go through;
But the Lord's almighty hand,
Said that ship would never land.
It was sad when that great ship went down.
It was sad, It was sad,
It was sad when the great ship went down;
Husbands and wives, little children lost their lives,
It was sad when the great ship went down.
They were off for England
And not very far from shore,
When the rich refused
To associate with the poor;
So they sent them down below,
Where they'd be the first to go.
It was sad when that great ship went down.
It was sad, It was sad,
It was sad when the great ship went down;
Husbands and wives, little children lost their lives,
It was sad when the great ship went down.
The boat was about to sink,
And the sides about to burst,
When the captain shouted,
"All Women and children first!."
Oh, the captain tried to wire,
But the wire was on fire.
It was sad when the great ship went down.
It was sad, It was sad,
It was sad when the great ship went down;
Husbands and wives, little children lost their lives,
It was sad when the great ship went down.
Oh, they swung the lifeboats out
O'er the deep and ragin' sea,
When the band struck up with
"Nearer My God to Thee."
Little children wept and cried,
As the waves swept o'er the side.
It was sad when the great ship went down.
It was sad, It was sad,
It was sad when the great ship went down;
Husbands and wives, little children lost their lives,
It was sad when the great ship went down.
A variant was also collected in 1951 from Ned Rice of Cape Broyle, NL, by Ken Peacock and published as The Loss Of The Titanic in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 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).
