The Heroes Who Sank With The Maine
Words by Jas. O'Dea
Music by Paul cohn
Published 1898

The mantle of night had enclosed in its folds
the port of Havanna so fair
And silence unbroken reigned peacefully o'er
a battleship anchored there
Below in the hold, the mariners bold
were sleeping the sleep of the brave;
Ne'er dreaming that they ere the dawn of day
would sleep in a watery grave.
When suddenly thro' the darkness and gloom,
there came a deaf'ning roar.
That stilled all the anxious hearts
of those who heard it on the shore,
But soon their cries were quickly hushed,
And when the morning came,
Naught but a mem'ry was left
of the crew who slumber'd that night on the Maine.

[chorus]
While our heroes in happiness dreamed
Of the loved ones at home far away,
And high o'er head there proudly streamed "Old Glory," free and gay.
'Twas there in the quiet of that fatal night,
A message of destiny came,
With its grief and its gloom, as it sounded the doom,
Of the heroes who sank with the Maine.

Those heroes who perished uncoffin'd may lie,
secure in their last resting place
But while there's a sun...and while there's a sky,
there's nothing their fame can efface;
In that far off deep unknown they may sleep
with nothing to trouble their rest;
But their souls we know, as the year may go,
are numbered among the blest.
Time's hand alone can silence the grief
of the loving ones left at home,
Who mourn night and day for those heroes brave
who rest beneath the foam,
And men throughout this world of ours,
Forever may proclaim
In praise of the noble and gallant crew
who perished that night on the Maine.

[repeat chorus]