JEREMIE BOAT GONE DOWN
(Bob Coltman)

CHORUS
Jeremie boat gone down in a storm,
Jeremie boat gone down (what a sorrow, now),
Jeremie boat gone down in a storm,
Oh the Jeremie boat gone down, an' if you're on the
Jeremie boat, you gone die in this world,
Nine hundred people drown.

ALT CHORUS
Jeremie boat, Jeremie
Boat, oh my Lord, 'n how the
Jeremiea boat -
Jeremie boat - gone down -

On the sixteen of February,
My God it was a storm that day, and the Neptune
Leavin' east out of Jeremie, sailin'
And the people crowd on board - three decks -
An' they hoping to see their faily, (???)
Go look for work in the capital,
But the sky come over black, and the rain come
Pourin' down and the decks give way, an' the -
CHORUS

Was men and women and families
Set out on that terrible day, my God,
They had goats and sheep and chickens on board
In that hour to be swept away,
The water come rage, toss the boat like a toy,
And the people run to the side, she tip,
The people screamin' and thrown in the water,
Nine hundred people died, and they cryin' -
CHORUS

They clingin' to piece of wreck, arm by the neck,
Crate and a charcoal sack, children cryin' out
Mama, sister I cannot see,
Bumped by the dead body,
While on the shore of Petit Goave and Mira-
Goane the bodies floatin' in on the tide,
Till the black sky blow away like a dream,
And the sun shine bitter on the dead and alive, when the -
CHORUS

How long, long, oh my people, how long
Must we die like animal, pressing together,
When the boat go down in the rocky sea,
No life jacket, no chance -
As they lay them out in the sand, poor soul,
The tears come pourin' in the afternoon,
So many dead that was alive this mornin',
Thinkin' nothing of going on the boat Neptune -
CHORUS

Yes, they laid them out in the sand like logs,
Like animals they died, and the tears come
Streamin' down, poor people to die
Such a dreadful death, the gulls come cryin',
So many people alive this mornin',
But now in the afternoon they dead,
Salt water, sand and the rocky sea
Breakin' up the last of the sad Neptune - when the -
CHORUS

Notes: On Tuesday, February 16, 1993 the Neptune, an overcrowded ferryboat believed to have been carrying some 1500 people, traveling to Port-au-Prince from the west coastal town of Jeremie, sank in stormy seas halfway there, off Petit Goave, Haiti. Over 900 were drowned.
I would never have been able to make a song like this if it weren't for the great calypsonian Blind Blake,* whose "Run Come See Jerusalem" captured my imagination at an impressionable age and hasn't let it go ever since.

*Blake Higgins of Nassau, Bahamas, who flourished at the Royal Victoria Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas, in the 1950s. Not to be confused with 1920s-30s bluesman Arthur 'Blind Blake' Phelps.

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