THE TITANIC (trad./EARVEN ANGLIN) (1951)

The iceberg that sunk the "Titanic." Photo taken from rescue ship "Carpathia," Apr 15, 1912.

Captain Smith

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Lyric as collected and transcribed by Irene J. Carlisle from Earven Anglin, Springdale, AK, Apr 3, 1951;
published in W. K. McNeil (ed.), Southern Folk Ballads, Vol. II, Little Rock, AK, 1988, p. 103.

A native of Cave Springs, Arkansas, Anglin was about thirty-five years old at the time of collection. He was co-owner of the Springdale garage where he worked as a mechanic. Anglin did not recall where he learned the song but insisted that the apparently meaningless words in the second stanza are given exactly as he heard them.

W. K. McNeil, ibid., p. 106.

On the seventeenth day of April,¹
Nineteen hundred and twelve,
The ship by the name of Titanic
From Liverpool left, with the swells.
lt was headed for New York City
With the cargoes of wealth and toll;
On the shores of Newfoundland lsland
She sank in the waters so cold.

CHORUS:
As the mighty ship was sinking
ln the cold and icy sea,
The last that the bands was heard to play
Was "Nearer, My God, to thee."

On board of the mighty vessel
Men with millions did ride;
The doctor, the lawyer, the merchant,
The rich, the poor, with their bride.
The gambler with all of his money;
The trimes went down the same; The sheeler now died with the cunning;
The slayer now died with the slain.

¹The Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, not April 17.

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