Lyrics

The tears they rolled o’er cheeks so pale of mothers and of boys,
Who mourn the loss in St. John’s town of many precious lives;
Lost in the Steamship Regalis, which causes them to weep,
Which now so many brave ones lie beneath the treach’rous deep.

‘Twas near wharf at Bell Isle the Regalis sailed away,
And she was bound for Sydney, all on that dismal day;
‘Twas the twenty-third of October, on which that well known ship,
Was followed by the angry waves all on her special trip.

‘Twas near Bay Bulls that awful night, the sea was raging high,
The fog was thick, the rain fell fast in torrents from the sky;
‘Twas such a night that here on land the stoutest hearts would scare,
Causing them to offer providence a grateful hearted prayer.

A mother’s heart is breaking for her blue-eyed sailor b’y,
The salt seaweed entwines his brow that once she kissed with joy;
A loving wife in anguish weeps, with orphans at her knee,
Can ne’er behold their father, now lies sleeping in the deep.

May God, the ruler of the land, the tempest, and the deep,
Console them in their sorrow in the hour of bitter grief;
And may they find a happier shore, most fervently we pray,
God rest the soul of those poor men who lost their lives that day.

Source: http://www.wtv-zone.com/phyrst/audio/nfld/21/regalis.htm