• From: Wellington, New Zealand
  • Registered: 2015-06-23
  • Posts: 89

Topic: Fourteen Minutes

I am not 100% happy with this song and would like peoples comments. The Captain on the  Empress of Ireland was more famous for capturing Dr Crippan than the sinking of his ship. He went on to rescue 600 refugees from Antwerp in the first world war by towing one ship with another ship. His destroyer was also torpedoed in the war.

Lord Mersey commented on how a modern ship shouldn't be able to sink in just 14 minutes. Over 70 years later The Herald of Free Enterprise turned turtle in about 90 seconds. We never seem to learn from history. The Empress killed more passengers than the Titanic but hardly anyone knows about it.

Fourteen Minutes

[C]Sailing down the St Lawance surrounded in fog
[C7]The Empress sat stopped it said in her log
[F]Directly amidships is where she was struck
[G]Like a hot knife through butter, she’d run out of luck
[C] With watertight doors open, the Empress was lost
[G]In freezing waters, with  a thousand life cost
[F]We remember Titanic from two years before
[G]But for passengers killed, the Empress lost more

[C]The Lusatania, is also a well known name
[G]The Empress of Ireland is just not the same
[F]Fourteen minutes was all that it took
[C]But no one remembers, it is now a closed book

[C]Did we learn anything, it seems we did not
[F]One and a half minutes , the Free Enterprise got
[G]Before she turned turtle off a Belgian shore
[C]And into heaven, one ninety souls more

  • Grah1
  • Honoured Member
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  • From: Cold and rainy Settle UK
  • Registered: 2011-05-12
  • Posts: 1,587

Re: Fourteen Minutes

The  subject  matter  is  great ,I  love songs  that  tell a  story  ,not  sure  how  it  will  play though I presume you are just picking the chords?

Grah1's Website

3 Reply by beestie (edited by beestie 2015-09-28 18:39:55)

  • From: Wellington, New Zealand
  • Registered: 2015-06-23
  • Posts: 89

Re: Fourteen Minutes

I've mucked around with it but it just seems to be lacking something and I can't put my finger on what is wrong. Maybe it just works better as a poem rather than a song. I'm trying to get through the idea that the Titanic is seen as a terrible disaster but the lives of the people lost on the Empress are some how almost less important. I think my problem is I haven't focused enough on any one thing. I cover the "we never learn" part and "how somethings capture our imagination" but it feels like a little bit of everything and not enough of anything.

  • Jandle
  • Jandle
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  • Registered: 2015-07-15
  • Posts: 1,905

Re: Fourteen Minutes

beestie, I like what you have written here, are you going to perform it? What chords are you thinking for this one.

Laugh Lots ... Forgive Much ...  Love one another     smile
Covers and some Originals found over there    ------- >    https://soundcloud.com/ukulelejan
  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,649

Re: Fourteen Minutes

hi beestie, what time signature have you given it? i've tried it a few times and the only time i can get it to work is in 3/4 waltz time with a different set of chords. you're probably playing a uke? so i'd like to hear you play it so i can see where you are and maybe giving a little help.

having said that, it's a great story, well written.

phill

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

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  • From: Wellington, New Zealand
  • Registered: 2015-06-23
  • Posts: 89

Re: Fourteen Minutes

I am playing a uke and I tried it originally in 4/4, but couldn't get it to work. Changing it to 3/4 made it better. I've been mucking around with the tempo a bit.
I have posted an attempt on soundcloud
https://soundcloud.com/sak-26/14-minutesmp3

  • From: Nova Scotia, Canada
  • Registered: 2013-01-20
  • Posts: 4,083

Re: Fourteen Minutes

Good story in your song, Beestie.

My late father-in-law was a British Merchant Seaman during WWII, and he would sometimes tell about wrecks he had witnessed. He would sometimes get emotional talking about them, to the point where the story often wasn't finished. I'd never heard of "The Empress" ... thanks for the introduction.