Lyr Add: The Kitty Friel

Subject: Lyr Add: The Kitty Friel
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 18 Aug 03 - 06:11 PM

On this the anniversary, I thought it best to add the lyrics...

The Kitty Friel
-Tamarack-

They launched The Kitty Friel in the spring of '69
She spent 10 good years in service hauling on the Rideau line
Ten years of rafts & barges with a crew both tried and brave
'Till five miles out of Merrickville she met a fiery grave

And it's pass around the bottle boys,
Raise your glasses high
Here's a health to all good sailors,
May they never, never die

On the 18th day of August, 1879
She was steaming hard for Ottawa on a day so warm and fine
Loaded down with well dried timber worth its weight in gold
When a funnel spark got settled glowing deep within her hold

The fire blazed so quickly that it caught the engineer
He couldn't reach the valves to shut her down
So she steamed four miles clear
'Till the captain found the courage to run his ship aground
So his men could save their lives before they all went down

The whistle melted off as they were running through the trees
In roar like Gods own thunder they were thrown to their knees
In a blast of steam and flame that the people heard in town
Five miles out of Merrickville The Kitty Friel went down