Verse 1:
       Cm                        Bb
Let me sing you a song, boys, of fire and flame
     Fm                         G
Of a French ammo ship, the Mont-Blanc was her name
        Cm         Bb         Ab        G
How the brave Nova Scotia was never the same
       Cm           Bb      Cm
On the morning when Halifax burned
 

         Cm              Bb
'Twas in early December 1917
        Fm                             G
She was packed to the gills with Grade a T-N-T
          Cm            Bb          Ab        G
They were bound for the fighting in High Germany
       Cm             Bb         Cm
When towards them the other ship turned
 
Verse 2:
       Cm                    Bb
The Norweigan ship Imo, some fault in her gears
           Fm                         G
She struck Mont-Blanc's side like the mightiest of spears
        Cm       Bb        Ab              G
And the benzol ignited the captain's worst fears
       Cm      Bb           Cm
As the fire consumed bow to stern
 

    Cm                         Bb
The people gazed on from their safe distant rooms
            Fm                          G
Watched the soot and the smoke fill the sky with their plumes
      Cm               Bb          Ab              G
But within, the ship's cargo would spell all their dooms
         Cm           Bb       Cm
How were they to know to be concerned?
 
Verse 3:
    Cm                              Bb
The crew rowed for shore, lest they burn or they drown
     Fm                                G
They cried, "Save your souls!" as they ran through the town
          Cm            Bb          Ab              G
But their warnings were nothing but strange foreign sounds
        Cm            Bb              Cm
For the townsfolk, no French had they learned
 

    Cm                           Bb
One man, Patrick Coleman, in the railway's employ
     Fm                                G
Sent word, "Stop the trains or they'll all be destroyed
          Cm         Bb           Ab           G
This will be my last message, farewell to you, boys"
      Cm          Bb           Cm
For a true hero's death he had earned
 
Verse 4:
   Cm                            Bb
An explosion, colossal, when the munitions blew
    Fm                     G           G7*
Devastation and debris for miles fired through
    Cm             Bb            Ab            G
The Mont-Blanc was gone, and the town with it, too
        Cm           Bb      Cm
And the waters raged up in return
 

           Cm                    Bb
There were heroes and angels all fated to die
     Fm                         G
Over two thousand souls laid to rest by-and-by
        Cm       Bb         Ab           G
We will always remember and lift a glass high
       Cm           Bb      Cm
To the morning when Halifax burned