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The Battleship Maine (I)
In SFLQ IV 185, Paul G. Brewster prints a text of The Battle-
ship Maine' from Indiana, learned by his informant from her
mother, who sang it to the tune 'On the Banks of the Wabash.'
With only a few verbal differences, it is the same as the following
North Carolina texts. The song is probably from a broadside or
sheet-music original of the Spanish-American War period.
A
'The Battleship Maine.' Collected by L. W. Anderson, while teaching at
Nag's Head, from Maxine Tillett. (Mr. Anderson received his A.B.
degree from Duke University in 1931.)
1 Many homes are wrecked with sorrow and with sadness,
Many hearts are torn with anguish and with pain,
And a nation now is draped in deepest mourning
O'er the heroes of the battleship, the Maine.
Some are asleep beneath the waters in the harbor,
Some repose beneath the mount of Spanish clay ;
But their spirits seem to cry aloud for vengeance,
On the shores of Havana, far away.
Chorus:
Oh, the moon shines down tonight along the waters,
Where the heroes of the Maine in silence lay.
May they rest in peace, the dear ones who are sleeping
On the shores of Havana, far away.
2 Some were thinking of their mothers, wives, and sweet-
hearts ;
Some were dreaming of the dear ones left at home.
And perhaps some lad who'd left the old folks grieving
Was just writing them from far across the foam.
When suddenly there came a loud explosion.
NATIVE AMERICAN BALLADS 547
Like a stone, a wreck, she sank down in the bay,
And two hundred noble-hearted sailors perished,
On the shores of Havana, far away.
'Off the Shores of Havana, Far Away.' From Jesse T. Carpenter,
Durham, as copied from the manuscript notebook of songs of Mrs. C. T.
Weatherly, R.F.D. No. 3, Greensboro. Differs in only six verbal
variations from A, the most important being "mound" for "mount" in
1.6.