General Slocum Lyrics

I keep asking these questions

How could this happen to you

The captain was well respected

And equipped with a qualified crew

The ship was in the East River

That's where she happened to be

But a fire broke out on a vessel

And she floated back out to sea

Don't you see the faces of horror

Don't you see the faces of death

Don't you see the pain of tomorrow

The captain was sentenced to prison and charged with neglect

The lifeboats all were defective

The extinguishers all didn't work

One thousand people were swallowed

By the water surrounding New York

Don't you see

Don't you see

Don't you see

Yes, I keep asking these questions

How could this happen to you

The captain was well respected

With a crew totaling twenty-two

Chartered for women and children

One thousand four hundred I learned

But when the day was all over

Only three hundred twenty returned

Life preservers defective

And stuffed with two penny cork

One thousand people were swallowed

By the water surrounding New York

And still I'm haunted by questions

Of that steamer from 1904

One thousand people could answer

But they're not around anymore