fascinatinghorror

The Yarmouth Castle Disaster

Added 2021-04-14 11:37:43 +0000 UTC

I've covered a few maritime disasters now, including at least one other ship consumed by fire. The Yarmouth Castle Disaster is the only one so far, though, that has its own song. Gordon Lightfoot wrote and recorded The Ballad of Yarmouth Castle in 1969, four years after the fire.

Here's the song in full if you'd like to give it a listen. And here's a little snippet of the lyrics:

"Deep within the Yarmouth Castle

The fire begins to glow

It leaps into the hallways

And climbs and twists and grows

And the paint she wore to keep her young

Oh Lord, how well it burns"

Lightfoot was an avid sailor as well as a musician, and so this isn't the only song about the sinking of a ship that he ever recorded. He also wrote Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald about the sinking of SS Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975. Hopefully, I'll be able to cover that disaster in a future episode!