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}
>
>
>
>
>

## Recordings

#### Streaming/Purchase

* Amazon Music
* Apple Music/iTunes
* Deezer
* Pandora
* Spotify

#### Full Band Streams

* Ex-Stream Sports (15 Feb 2022)
* Stream America (15 Mar 2022)
* Cadbury Stream Egg (13 Apr 2022)
* Streamage Mutant Ninja Turtles (3 May 2022)
* In Space No One Can Hear You Stream (19 Oct 2022)
* Streamworks (18 Jan 2023)
* Stream Lantern (27 Sep 2023)

#### Gaming Streams

* Sea of Sings for War Child - 30/05/2022