The Nemisis

Nemesis left with a cargo of coal,
Headed for Sydney on a day so cold

As she made her run, the swell did rise

Under the lowering, leaden skies.

Chorus

Heave away, as the seagulls cry,
Nemesis sailed ‘neath a darkening sky,
With coal from the Hunter, Melbourne bound,
She sailed, but she never reached that town

Nine July, in the year 'O Four,
The sea grew wild with a devil’s roar,
Off Wollongong she was last in sight,
Fighting the gale through the dead of night.

Chorus

Another ship, through the storm she passed,
Saw Nemesis roll with a broken mast,
Her funnels black and her decks awash,
The sea took hold in a thunderous crash

Chorus

No message came as the engine died,

No lifeboat launched

on the larward side

The decks were swamped as the waves rolled high

Thirty two souls, perished that night

Chorus

Wooden wreckage, washed ashore

The Nemesis would be no more
Not the first to meet her fate—
Nemesis swallowed through ocean’s gate.

Chorus x 2