Seven Minutes

In 1913 the ship Alum Chine was at Hawkins Point loading up with dynamite for the building of the Panama Canal. When smoke started coming from the dynamite, the workers knew they didn't have much time left. It turns out they only had seven minutes until the ship exploded. This tragedy inspired the 4-part SATB anthem "Seven Minutes" by Dan Meyer.

Lyrics:

Seven minutes on the Alum Chine,
Laughin’, jokin’, feelin’ fine.
Sometimes it only takes seven
‘Til you’re headin’ up to heaven.

Seven minutes is all it takes
And you’re breakin’ windows up in Havre de Grace,
Throughout Baltimore to Chestertown,
But you’re not anywhere to be found.

Seven minutes at Hawkins Point;
Five hundred tons of dynamite in the joint.
One mistake doesn’t seem like a log,
But seven minutes is all you’ve got.

Seven minutes in a smoky cloud;
No one better try to put this fire out.
Take a dive and swim for shore
Before you hear the roar

Of an explosion like the devil’s cry
And the Alum Chine itself tumbles from the sky
And a wave hits the shore and it’s twenty feet high.
And there’s a pillar of smoke with thirty-three souls in it
Rising to the sky, and it only took seven minutes.

Seven minutes and the Alum Chine
Is nothin’ but a memory in my mind.
Let this be a lesson to you:
There’s a countdown (7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2...)
For you and me, too.

© 2010, Daniel C. Meyer