Lyrics

Ye darling sons of Newfoundland,
Your kind attention, pray,
While I relate in language straight
The dangers of the sea,
And how the hardy fishermen—
The sufferings they withstand,
While on the stormy, rock-bound coast
Surrounding Newfoundland.

Most every fall at duty’s call,
Some noble hero brave,
While on this bleak and lonely coast,
Sleeps in a sailor’s grave.
And now we have to chronicle
Another sad, sad tale—
Of how the “Heroine” went down,
In Sunday’s hurricane.

The “Heroine” was homeward bound,
From Sydney she did sail
All went well till Sunday night,
While riding out the gale.
Should foundered near the Channel coast
And soon she was no more,
As pieces of the wreckage
Were found floating near the shore.

For near the coast of Channel,
They found wreckage and a sign,
And on the board in letters bright—
Her name—the “Heroine,”
The fishermen on that wild coast,
Alas I too well they knew
That something fearful happened
To the schooner and the crew.

No tidings of the missing men
Were seen by those one shore,
Although they searched along the beach
For two long hours or more.
With no one left to tell the tale
Of how she met her doom.
While many a bright and Cheerful home
Is cast in grief and gloom.

Perhaps the crew took to the boats,
Their precious lives to save,
And picked up by some passing ship,
Snatched from a watery grave.
We hope and pray they’re safe to-day,
And good news yet may hear,
Oh how kind Providence saved their
lives,
Their sad homes for to cheer.

May God, the Ruler of the land,
The tempest and the deep,
Make light the sorrows of the poor,
The widows left in grief,
The children dear they loves so well
Are cast in gloom to-day,
And may they see a brighter land,
Most fervently we pray.

Citation:  Burke, John, comp. Burke’s Newfoundland Ballads. [St. John’s]: by author, 1912, p.19-20.