“The Great Ship Went Down (Titanic #16)”
Description
"Titanic was a ship... Oh, it was a pleasure trip." "Titanic was her name, Atlantic was her fame, she sank about five hundred miles from shore, 1600 were at sea... went down an angry wave to rise no more." 1600 die in the "angry wave."
Notes
The Cofer Brothers version of this is so generic that it might almost be a rewrite of one of the other songs, but the Cowboy Loye version has the interesting feature of mentioning Mr. and Mrst. Isidore Strauss -- the second richest couple on the ship after John Jacob Astor. I haven't met this in any other _Titanic_ song. It is also unusual in that it doesn't shove a moral down your throat.
Thanks to John Garst for help with the Loye text.
For an extensive history of the _Titanic_, with detailed examination of the truth (or lack thereof) of quotes in the _Titanic_ songs, see the notes to "The Titanic (XV)" ("On the tenth day of April 1912") (Titanic #15) - RBW
Recordings
- Cofer Brothers, "The Great Ship Went Down" (OKeh 45137, 1927)
References
- ADDITIONAL: Cowboy Loye and Just Plain John, Old Time Ballads & Cowboy Songs (no date but internal evidence dates it after 1932), pp 43-44, "Titanic"
- BI, RcGSWD