Downed and Drowned

Downed and Drowned is a Longest Johns original song written by Dave Robinson and featured on the album Smoke + Oakum.

Factoids[]

San José was a Spanish galleon, part of the treasure fleet during the War of the Spanish Succession. On the ship's final voyage, the fleet fought a British squadron in a battle known as Wager's Action on 8 June 1708. During the battle, San José's powder magazines detonated, destroying and sinking the ship with most of her crew and the gold, silver, emeralds and jewelry collected in the South American colonies to finance the Spanish king's war effort. Of the 600 people aboard, only eleven survived.

Royal Charter was a steam clipper, one of 133 ships sunk in a storm (later dubbed the Royal Charter Storm) on 26 October 1859. The wreck claimed about 450 lives, the highest death toll of any shipwreck on the Welsh coast. The passengers included many gold miners returning from Australia, some of whom were carrying large sums of gold. Many victims were killed by being dashed against the rocks by the waves, but others were said to have drowned, weighed down by the belts of gold they wore. As a result of the storm, the Meteorological Office introduced the first gale warning service to prevent similar tragedies.

Mary Celeste was an American merchant brigantine discovered adrift off the Azores Islands on 4 December 1872. There was some damage to rigging and sails but the ship was still in seaworthy condition, with the last entry in the log dated ten days prior. Ample provisions remained, and neither the cargo nor the personal effects of the captain and crew had been disturbed, though most of the ship's papers and the captain's navigational instruments were missing, as well as the lifeboat. No one who had been on board, including the captain's wife and two-year-old daughter, was ever found. Many theories have been advanced regarding the events leading up to the ship's abandonment, but the truth remains unknown.

Revenge was an English galleon built in 1577. In August 1591, the English were attempting to disrupt the flow of treasure to Spain via naval patrols; Revenge was on such a patrol when it was attacked by a Spanish fleet of some 53 ships. The battle lasted 15 hours, with the Revenge putting up a surprisingly strong defense, but it ultimately couldn't defeat the overwhelming Spanish numbers. At surrender, only 16 men remained uninjured out of a crew of 250. The victors attempted to take the captured vessel back to Spain, but the ship and its mixed crew of English captives and Spaniards were lost in a storm before reaching their destination.

HMS Hermione was a Royal Navy frigate which suffered a mutiny on 21 September 1797. Captain Hugh Pigot was notoriously cruel, and his severe and arbitrary punishments had led to the deaths of multiple men under his command. Fed up with the abuse and drunk on stolen rum, a number of crew members brutally murdered the captain and eight officers, then sailed to Venezuela and handed the ship over to the Spanish in an attempt to avoid punishment. 33 mutineers were eventually captured and tried; of those, 24 were hanged and gibbetted, one was transported, and eight were acquitted or pardoned. The ship was recaptured by the British in 1799.

PS General Slocum was a sidewheel passenger steamboat operated in the New York City area as an excursion steamer. On 15 June 1904, it was chartered to transport a church group of mostly women and children to a picnic in Long Island, but a fire broke out shortly after getting underway. Firefighting efforts were stymied by a rotted firehose and an unprepared crew, and the lifeboats were tied up and inaccessible. Perhaps worst of all, on top of being rotted with age, the life preservers had been manufactured with cheap powdered cork, supplemented with iron bars to meet weight requirements. Many fell apart in passengers' hands; those that made it into the water split open, scattering the cork and leaving only the weights. An estimated 1,021 of the 1,342 people on board died, making it the New York area's worst disaster in terms of loss of life until the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Lyrics[]

San Jose was lost at sea
Along with a Spanish company
Their powder caught under fierce attack
The king never got his emeralds back
They're down, downed and drowned
Downed and drowned and never found

The Royal Charter in Dulas bay
One of two hundred lost that day
Miners' pockets filled with gold
Dragged them down to the ocean cold
They're down, downed and drowned
Downed and drowned and never found

{Chorus}
They're down, drowned in thе depths below
Wherе the sun don't shine and the winds don't blow
And the timbers crack and the mainstay fails
We'll all find peace wrapped within our sails

Mary Celeste was found alone
The fate of her crew is still unknown
Murder, fraud or acts bizarre
No one can say but chances are
They're down, downed and drowned
Downed and drowned and never found

Hail the Revenge for their bravery
Tried to escape fighting fifty-three
The surrender of her last sixteen crew
Couldn't save her boards from the briny blue
They're down, downed and drowned
Downed and drowned and never found

{Chorus}

Pity the crew of Hermione
Suffered a curséd mutiny
Their vicious captain caused the brawl
Mutineers and victims all
They're down, downed and drowned
Downed and drowned and never found

General Slocum's wheels of wood
Caught ablaze like they never should
Floats of cork filled with weights instead
Sent families off to the riverbed
They're down, downed and drowned
Downed and drowned and never found

{Chorus}

All my friends are dead and gone
I'll join them soon, it won't be long
Whether lost at sea or far ashore
To the ocean return forevermore
We're down, downed and drowned
Downed and drowned and never found

{Outro}
Down, downed and drowned
Downed and drowned and never found
{repeat and fade}

Downed and Drowned

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