The Springhill Disaster

       Dm      C            Dm    C
In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia
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Down in the dark of the Cumberland Mine
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There's blood on the coal and the miners lie
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in the roads that nev-er saw sun nor sky
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the roads that nev-er saw sun nor sky


In the town of Springhill you don't sleep easy
Often the earth will tremble and roll
When the earth is restless, miners die
Bone and blood is the price of coal,
Bone and blood is the price of coal

In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia
Late in the year of fifty-eight
Day still comes and the sun still shines
But it's dark as the grave in the Cumberland Mine,
Dark as the grave in the Cumberland Mine

Down at the coal face the miners working
Rattle of the belt and the cutters blade
Rumble of rock and the walls close round
The living and the dead men two miles down
The living and the dead men two miles down

Twelve men lie two miles from the pitshaft
Twelve men lie in the dark and sang
Long hot days in the miner's tomb
It was three feet high and a hundred long,
three feet high and a hundred long

Three days passed and the lamps gave out
And Caleb Rushton he up and says
"There's no more water or light or bread,
so we'll live on songs and hope instead,
we'll live on songs and hope instead".

Listen for the shouts of the bareface miners
listen through the rubble for a rescue team,
Six hundred feet of coal and slag
Hope imprisoned in a three foot seam,
Hope imprisoned in a three foot seam.

Eight long days and some were rescued,
Leaving the dead to lie alone.
Through all their lives they dug their grave
Two miles of earth for a marking stone,
Two miles of earth for a marking stone.

c 1961 Stormking Music Inc.