ADD:Sinking of Titanic/Ship That Will Never Return

Subject: Lyr Req: Sinking of Titanic
From: GUEST,Jacqued
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 03:03 PM

Greetings!   When I was a lad (late 1930's!) my grandfather used to sing a song about the sinking of the Titanic, but I can't find any trace of it now.   All I can clearly remember is the chorus:

On the ship that will never return,
the ship that will never return.
Husbands and sons, brave hearted ones -
on the ship that will never return.

One verse started:

They trusted the Captain, they trusted the crew,
and none on that ship were dismayed.---------

Any help out there, please?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sinking of Titanic
From: GUEST,Gene
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 03:14 PM

Just search for the data base and forum for
[titanic] and you will get lots of hits

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sinking of Titanic
From: GUEST,Jacqued
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 03:23 PM

Many thanks, Guest Gene - tried but could not find a match, but will try again!   Must remember the spider!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sinking of Titanic
From: oldhippie
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 03:33 PM

Don't Have the Lyrics, but "The Ship That Never Returned" was by Henry C. Work, music from the "Wreck of the Old '97".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sinking of Titanic
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 03:33 PM

I don't think Work's The Ship That Never Returned refers to the Titanic, since the Work song was published in 1884 - no doubt it has been sung in honor of the Titanic, however. Nutty linked to a number of Titanic songs in this message (click), but I don't think that we've had a transcription of The Ship That Will Never Return (click). I'll have a transcription ready in a few minutes.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sinking of Titanic
From: Peace
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 03:56 PM

I'm working on it, Joe.

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Oh, darn. I had asked for a volunteer in the message above, but then changed the message when I found time to do the job. Looks like I beat you to it. Hope you didn't work too hard. Thanks a lot for the effort, Bruce. We have to figure out a way to avoid duplicating efforts like this.
-Joe-

Subject: ADD: The Ship That Will Never Return (St. Clair)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 04:05 PM

The Ship That Will Never Return
(F.V. St. Clair, 1912)

A big ship left port on its first maiden voyage,
The world gazed in wonder and pride...
Old England was proud of the ship and its crew,
Whose Captain was trusted and tried....
The ship was a city of splendour and light,
Its rich and its poor side by side....
But when the shock came and the vessel went down,
Rich man and poor man like Englishmen died.

CHORUS
On the Ship that will never return....
The ship that will never return....
Brave words were spoken, and brave hearts were broken.
Ah! Here's where true love you discern....
Mothers they sobbed in prayer
As they parted from loved ones there....
Husbands and sons, brave hearted ones,
On the ship that will never return.


Titanic its name and Titanic its size,
O'er the waves of the ocean she rode,
Four days had gone by since she'd left the old land,
With over two thousand aboard;
And then came the crash in the dead of the night,
But none on that ship were dismayed.
They trusted the Captain and they trusted the crew,
And even the women they were not afraid -
CHORUS

Be British, the Captain cried out from the bridge,
Be British - and British were they.
The women and children the first for the boats -
And the Sailors knew how to obey;
As long as old England sends ships over sea
The deeds of that night she'll recall
When rich man and poor man went down side by side
Where Rank made no difference for Death levelled all -
CHORUS


from The Lester Levy Sheet Music Collection

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Click to play

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Certainly a different perspective from many of the Titanic songs. In this one, "Rank" (with a capital "R") made no difference....

Subject: RE: ADD:Sinking of Titanic/Ship That Will Never Return
From: GUEST,Jacqued
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 04:24 PM

Many thanks, Joe and others - you all took me back nearly 70 years in a flash!

I must now do it at the club, should wring a few withers!

Mudcatters for ever,

Jacqued

Subject: RE: ADD:Sinking of Titanic/Ship That Will Never Return
From: Cats
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 04:41 PM

Has anyone come across the song, 'Welcome to New York, Titanic'? It was written and recorded ready to coincide with the arrival of the ship and when it went down the company went bust. There has to be a copy out there somewhere.

Subject: RE: ADD:Sinking of Titanic/Ship That Will Never Return
From: Peace
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 04:47 PM

[e-mail]

Might be worth asking at the above address. It's not coming up with Mr Google.

Subject: RE: ADD:Sinking of Titanic/Ship That Will Never Return
From: oldhippie
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 04:59 PM

There is also a song "Ship Titanic":

O they built the ship Titanic
for to sail the ocean blue
And they thought they had a ship
that the water could ne'er go through
It was on her maiden trip
that the iceberg hit the ship
It was sad when the great ship went down

Chorus:
O it was sad, it was sad
It was sad when the great ship went down
Husbands and wives,
little children lost their lives
It was sad when the great ship went down.

O they sailed out from England
and were almost to the shore
when the rich refused
to associate with the poor
So they put them down below
where they were the first to go

chorus

The boat was full of sin
and the sides about to burst
when the captain shouted
A-women and children first
O the captain tried to wire
but the lines were all on fire

chorus

O they swung the lifeboats out
o'er the deep and raging sea
when the band struck up with
"Nearer my God to Thee"
Little children wept and cried
as the waves swept o'er the sides

chorus

Subject: RE: ADD:Sinking of Titanic/Ship That Will Never Re
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 12:25 AM

Oldhippie, generally it's better not to post lyrics to songs that have already been posted here at Mudcat, or that are in our Digital Tradition Folk Song Database (DT).

An exception would be if you are submitting corrections to DT lyrics; or if you are directly discussing a song in a thread, and it would be helpful to have the lyrics directly visible.

If you're answering a song request, try to find it here and provide a link to it. If it's not here, post the entire lyrics - but also be sure to say where you found the lyrics.

Thanks.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: ADD:Sinking of Titanic/Ship That Will Never Re
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 02:15 AM

OK, so I transcribed the tune for "Ship That Will Never Return." Can't say I like it very much. There are a number of notes that just sound "wrong," but I transcribed exactly what was on the sheet music.
-Joe-

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Click to play

Subject: RE: ADD:Sinking of Titanic/Ship That Will Never Return
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 04:38 AM

Had a listen to your BLICKY of the tune and, yes, some of the notes sound strange, but overall, it fits into the kind of melody structure found in a lot of music hall songs of the period.
I suspect that it is one of those songs which needs to be "performed", not just sung flat.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: ADD:Sinking of Titanic/Ship That Will Never Return
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Jun 11 - 10:48 PM

Just read a book by Steve Turner called The Band That Played On. In the back of the book there is a song called "The Ship That Will Never Return". It was written by Canadian F. V. St. Clair. It has several of the lines you have remembered.
I tried searching this title/author and came up with all kinds of sheet music, etc. on the Internet.
Hope this helps!
B. Michael, Ohio

Subject: RE: ADD:Sinking of Titanic/Ship That Will Never Return
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 23 Jun 11 - 12:21 AM

Glad the song was found. Regarding the Titanic and music, two papers presented at the Mystic Sea Music Festival were about that disaster. T. Joseph Scanlon of Carleton University presented " 'A Challenge to the Lord' : Folk Songs about the 'Unsinkable' Titanic." He has collected a lot of these songs, including songs from a variety of countries. I wonder if he uses Mudcat! The other was " 'Nearer My God to Thee' ; The Cultural Origin of the Famous Titanic Legend" presented by Dr. Ken Kurihara, Fordham University.