Did the Maine Go Down?

DESCRIPTION: "On fifteenth day of February, In the year of '98, That day records the Maine disaster, 'Twas the day that sealed her fate." Many will not return home. It's Spain's fault. Captain Sigsbee went where duty called; so did many of the sailors
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship death derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1895 - Cubans rebel against Spain
Feb 15, 1898 - Explosion of the battleship "Maine" in Havana harbour
April 25, 1898 - Congress declares war on Spain
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 329-336, "Did the Maine Go Down?" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship That Never Returned" [Laws D27] (tune) and references there
cf. "My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine" (theme) and references there
NOTES [88 words]: List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana says this is to the tune of "The Wreck of the Old 97," and it is true that it (as transcribed by List) it lack the chorus of "The Ship That Never Returned." Since, however, it has several stanzas that look like direct rewrites of "The Ship," and the third verse appears as if it should have been the chorus, and the song was presumably written in 1898, before the Old 97 was even wrecked, I think the song can be traced back to "The Ship" without having "Old 97" in its ancestry. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: List329

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography