THE SINKING OF THE REUBEN JAMES
(To the tune of The Wildwood Flower)
Recorded by Johnny Horton
Words and music by Woody Guthrie

INTRO:
What were their names, tell me what were their names?
Did you have a friend on the good Reuben James?

Have you heard of a ship called that good Reuben James?
Manned by hard-fighting men both of honor and fame
She flew the Stars and Stripes of the Land of the Free
But tonight she’s in her grave at the bottom of the sea.

CHORUS
What were their names, tell me what were their names?
Did you have a friend on the good Reuben James?
Tell me, what were their names, what were their names?
Did you have a friend on the good Reuben James?

It was there in the dark of that uncertain night
That we waited for U-boats and waited for that fight
Then a whine and a rock and a great explosion roared
And they laid the Reuben James on that cold ocean floor.

CHORUS

Now, tonight there are lights in our country so bright
On the farms and the cities they’re tellin’ of that fight
And now our mighty battleships will sail the bounding main
And remember the men of the good Reuben James.

CHORUS

Note. From Johnny Horton Makes History – Columbia CS-8269
The REUBEN JAMES was the first American warship
lost in World War II, torpedoed by German U-boats on
October 31, 1941. The destroyer, which was attacked
west of Iceland, was one of a squadron of warships
which did out-ranging for the transports and larger
ships on convoy.