I just stumbled onto this thread. Very interesting. Thanks to all who've contributed. I used to sing this song when my kids were young. I remember the sinking of the Reuben James (I was about 10 at the time) and remember that it was a destroyer escorting a convoy bound for Britain, but it was kept fairly quiet as the U.S. was not in the war yet. I don't think I ever heard the story about the man Reuben James so I was glad to see that here. I always loved Woody Guthrie's songs and still do.

In "The Woody Guthrie Songbook", edited by Harold Leventhal and Marjorie Guthrie, 1976, I found some interesting information abour Woody: During the war Woody shipped out with his guitar and two seamen buddies, Cisco Houston and Jimmy Longhi. Woody said he was in "3 invasions" with the Merchant Marine, was torpedoed twice, once off Sicily and once off Cherbourg, France, so two of the invasions would have been those of Sicily and the D-Day landings. He often sang for troops, shipmates and freed POWs in Sicily. After the 2nd torpedoing he returned to the U.S. and was drafted into the army on the very day Hitler surrendered, and served in the army for 8 months.

In the book the song is entitled "The Sinking of the Reuben James", not just "Reuben James" and has just 4 verses and the chorus. It was copyrighted in 1942. The book also has the words to the original effort to create a composition with the names of all those who died on the Reuben James. Ten verses, but it only got as far as mentioning the names of 21 men. For most of them their home town or state is also mentioned and for some their ship duty, such as fireman, radioman, gunner, etc. Verse 8 starts, "Eighty-six men were drowned, I can't give you all their names, only forty-four were saved from that good Reuben James." I guess that was where the realization set in that naming all those whe were lost would be an impossible task. The last two verses and the first two lines of the opening verse are included in the familiar song that we all have sung. The note after the piece with the men's names says, "This is the poem the Almanacs (Almanac Singers which included both Woody and Pete Seeger) first wrote about the sinking of the Reuben James. Later, maybe an hour or two, at least, we ganged around the poem and changed it to a good singing song with a chorus that you can join in easy..."

Reiver 2