Fire & Flame lyrics

Let me sing you a song, boys, of fire and flame

Of a French ammo ship, the Mont Blanc was her name

How the brave Nova Scotia was never the same

On the morning when Halifax burned

T'was in early December 1917

She was packed to the gills with grade A TNT

They were bound for the fighting in high Germany

When towards them the other ship turned

The Norwegian ship, Imo, some falt in her gears

She struck Mont Blanc's side like the mightiest of spears

Then the benzol ignited the captain's worst fears

As the fire consumed bow to stern

The people gazed on from their safe distant rooms

Watched the soot and the smoke fill the sky with their plumes

But within the ship's cargo would spell all their dooms

How were they to know to be concerned?

The crew rode for shore lest they burn or they drown

They cried "Save your souls!" as they ran through the town

But their warnings were nothing but strange foreign sounds

For the townsfolk no French had they learned

One man, Patrick Colman in the railway's employ

Sent word "Stop the trains, or they'll all be destroyed.

This will be my last message, farewell to you boys."

For a true hero's death he had earned

An explosion colossal when the munitions blew

Devastation and debris for miles fired through

The Mont Blanc was gone and the town with it too

And the waters raged up in return

They were heroes and angels all fated to die

Over two thousand souls laid to rest by and by

We will always remember and lift a glass high

To the morning when Halifax burned