Lyrics

1 Attention fellow country men while this sad tale I’ll tell,
About the well known steamship, the S.S. Florizel;
When gravely harmed up near Renews the steamer came to grief,
Caught in a blinding snow storm, she ran up on a reef.

2 Last Saturday night at twelve o’clock the steamer leaved the pier
She had every indication that a storm was drawing near;
With Captain Martin on the bridge she sailed that afternoon
And a hundred and thirty passengers in her steerage and saloon.

3 A blinding snowstorm did come on before she left Cape Spear.
They thought she was a powerful boat so the passengers had no fear ,
While on their bunks they lay that night in calm and peaceful sleep
Not thinking before it was morning they’d be buried in the deep.

4 Up near Renews as morning dawned all hands received a shock
And as they scrambled from their berths they found they’d struck a rock;
Some rushed on deck being scarcely clad, in hopes their lives to save
The sea soon washed them off her deck into the angry waves.

5 ‘She’s on the rocks! She’s on the rocks!’ the passengers did cry.
Poor helpless women in their berths gave up their lives to die.
While strong men scrambled up in hopes their precious lives to save,
But the sea soon washed them off her decks into the angry waves.

6 Many cried and others prayed that help would be near by,
And to attract them on the shore more signals they did fly;
And soon a steamer she was seen who took them from the wreck
But only forty lives were saved from out the hundred and six.

7 A gloom was cast on every home to hear the saddening news
About the Florizel went down when wrecked up near Renews;
And ninety-four, their precious lives that evening left the shore
They met their doom a-drownding – we’ll see them nevermore.

Citation: Lehr, Genevieve. Come and I Will Song You, p. 66-67