Lyrics

Won’t you listen as I tell my sad story
Of the disaster Escuminac Bay,
Where the fishermen were fishing for salmon,
For that’s how they earn their pay.

When the storm broke with all of its fury
On June nineteenth of fifty–nine,
When the strong winds and waves crashed upon them
Without a warning or sign,

Thirty–five lives were then taken
That awful night on the deep,
Which caused their wives and their loved ones
And all who knew them to weep.

Some were saved from disaster
And lived to tell of the past,
Of the things that they had seen happen,
And of a boy who was tied to a mast.

Next day when the storm had subsided,
And the news of the disaster made known,
Some helped with the dragging for bodies,
While others the wrecked boats had towed.

On the beaches their loved ones were standing,
And the great crowds they had grown
To view the scene of the wreckage
And the bodies of them they had known.

Some bodies were found in the wreckage,
While some had drifted to shore,
And some of them are still missing
Who may never be found any more.

A drive for funds for the widows
And for those who lost souls at sea
Was organized in New Brunswick
To help raise their families.

The disaster has brought tears and sorrow
To their widows and families;
What seems to me a great pity
That these things have to be.

Citation: Manny, Louise and James Reginald Wilson. Songs of Miramichi, p. 95-96 w sheet music.