It's worth noting that many of the songs about the Titanic that were written by African-Americans like Leadbelly and Blind Willie Johnson were rather upbeat considering they were written about a tragedy of epic proportions. The reason for this is that White Star Line, owners of the Titanic, did not allow blacks on their ships either as passengers or crew, not even as stokers.

A copy of their official policy about this can be found in the museum at Cobh. At least it could about 20 years ago!

Bev and Jerry