Wreck of the Maine
Words & music by Reginald M. Tewksbury
Published 1898

In Havana's harbor lay a stately warship,
Her four hundred men in hammocks fast asleep;
When upon the air there broke a mighty thunder,
And ship and men were hurled into the deep!
Oh, how many hearts are bleeding now with sorrow?
Oh, how many homes are shadow'd o'er with woe?
For the mourning ones will dawn no bright tomorrow,
While the tides above their dear ones ebb and flow!

[refrain]
Then tears of sorrow for our gallant heroes!
The noble hearts we'll never see again!
Thro' the years we'll tell the record of their glory,
And we'll ne'er forget the story of the Maine!
Not in battle have the Nation's heroes fallen,
But in peaceful rest the awful summons came;
None the less for them the praise for simple duty
Within our hearts shall live for aye their fame!
Was it treachery whose hand was their undoing?
Who shall answer at the fearful Judgment Day?
Heaven pity those who mourn their absent lov'd ones
Who are sleeping 'neath the billows far away!

[repeat refrain]