Lyrics

On the twentieth of April, nineteen-seventy,
When the Patrick Morris met her fate at sea;
With freight partly loaded, North Sydney she did sail,
In search for the Enterprise in a fierce Atlantic gale.

About twelve miles off Cape Smoky, in the rugged Cabot Strait,
The sea pounded her stern door, till finally it gave way;
As water poured inside her, the crew knew this was it;
For the mighty Patrick Morris had a forty degree list.

One lifeboat they did lower, and each man stood in line,
And forty-seven survivors were picked up by the Rhine;
The engineers below deck, where they could not be saved,
With Captain Roland Penney, they met a watery grave.

The Morris sent a mayday to the Ambrose Shea,
Which was forty miles from Port-aux-Bas on that fatal day;
They turned and headed for her, but all that they did see,
Was a growing oil slick and plenty of debris.

Four bodies in the water, an empty lifeboat, too,
Was all that was spotted by the Ambrose Shea crew;
So on a mercy mission, in the rough Atlantic Sea,
The ferry Patrick Morris is resting peacefully.
The ferry Patrick Morris is resting peacefully.

I am grateful to GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador for the lyrics.