Departmental Ditties and Barrack Room Ballads Part 15

And he answered, "Let her drift."

It was our war-s.h.i.+p Clampherdown, Swung round upon the tide, Her two dumb guns glared south and north, And the blood and the bubbling steam ran forth, And she ground the cruiser's side.

"Captain, they cry, the fight is done, They bid you send your sword."

And he answered, "Grapple her stern and bow.

They have asked for the steel. They shall have it now; Out cutla.s.ses and board!"

It was our war-s.h.i.+p Clampherdown Spewed up four hundred men; And the scalded stokers yelped delight, As they rolled in the waist and heard the fight Stamp o'er their steel-walled pen.

They cleared the cruiser end to end, From conning-tower to hold.

They fought as they fought in Nelson's fleet; They were stripped to the waist, they were bare to the feet, As it was in the days of old.

It was the sinking Clampherdown Heaved up her battered side-- And carried a million pounds in steel, To the cod and the corpse-fed conger-eel, And the scour of the Channel tide.

It was the crew of the Clampherdown Stood out to sweep the sea, On a cruiser won from an ancient foe, As it was in the days of long ago, And as it still shall be.

THE BALLAD OF THE "BOLIVAR"

Seven men from all the world, back to Docks again, Rolling down the Ratcliffe Road drunk and raising Cain: Give the girls another drink 'fore we sign away-- We that took the Bolivar out across the Bay!

We put out from Sunderland loaded down with rails; We put back to Sunderland 'cause our cargo s.h.i.+fted; We put out from Sunderland--met the winter gales-- Seven days and seven nights to the Start we drifted.

Racketing her rivets loose, smoke-stack white as snow, All the coals adrift adeck, half the rails below, Leaking like a lobster-pot, steering like a dray-- Out we took the Bolivar, out across the Bay!

One by one the Lights came up, winked and let us by; Mile by mile we waddled on, coal and fo'c'sle short; Met a blow that laid us down, heard a bulkhead fly; Left the Wolf behind us with a two-foot list to port.

Trailing like a wounded duck, working out her soul; Clanging like a smithy-shop after every roll; Just a funnel and a mast lurching through the spray-- So we threshed the Bolivar out across the Bay!

'Felt her hog and felt her sag, betted when she'd break; Wondered every time she raced if she'd stand the shock; Heard the seas like drunken men pounding at her strake; Hoped the Lord 'ud keep his thumb on the plummer-block.

Banged against the iron decks, bilges choked with coal; Flayed and frozen foot and hand, sick of heart and soul; Last we prayed she'd buck herself into judgment Day-- Hi! we cursed the Bolivar--knocking round the Bay!

O her nose flung up to sky, groaning to be still-- Up and down and back we went, never time for breath; Then the money paid at Lloyd's caught her by the heel, And the stars ran round and round dancin' at our death.

Aching for an hour's sleep, dozing off between; 'Heard the rotten rivets draw when she took it green; 'Watched the compa.s.s chase its tail like a cat at play-- That was on the Bolivar, south across the Bay.

Once we saw between the squalls, lyin' head to swell-- Mad with work and weariness, wis.h.i.+n' they was we-- Some d.a.m.ned Liner's lights go by like a long hotel; Cheered her from the Bolivar--swampin' in the sea.

Then a grayback cleared us out, then the skipper laughed; "Boys, the wheel has gone to h.e.l.l--rig the winches aft!

Yoke the kicking rudder-head--get her under way!"

So we steered her, pulley-haul, out across the Bay!

Just a pack o' rotten plates puttied up with tar, In we came, an' time enough, 'cross Bilbao Bar.

Overloaded, undermanned, meant to founder, we Euchred G.o.d Almighty's storm, bluffed the Eternal Sea!

Seven men from all the world, back to town again, Rollin' down the Ratcliffe Road drunk and raising Cain: Seven men from out of h.e.l.l. Ain't the owners gay, 'Cause we took the "Bolivar" safe across the Bay?

THE ENGLISH FLAG

Above the portico a flag-staff, bearing the Union Jack, remained fluttering in the flames for some time, but ultimately when it fell the crowds rent the air with shouts, and seemed to see significance in the incident.--DAILY PAPERS.

Winds of the World, give answer! They are whimpering to and fro-- And what should they know of England who only England know?-- The poor little street-bred people that vapour and fume and brag, They are lifting their heads in the stillness to yelp at the English Flag!

Must we borrow a clout from the Boer--to plaster anew with dirt?

An Irish liar's bandage, or an English coward's s.h.i.+rt?

We may not speak of England; her Flag's to sell or share.

What is the Flag of England? Winds of the World, declare!

The North Wind blew:--"From Bergen my steel-shod vanguards go; I chase your lazy whalers home from the Disko floe; By the great North Lights above me I work the will of G.o.d, And the liner splits on the ice-field or the Dogger fills with cod.

"I barred my gates with iron, I shuttered my doors with flame, Because to force my ramparts your nutsh.e.l.l navies came; I took the sun from their presence, I cut them down with my blast, And they died, but the Flag of England blew free ere the spirit pa.s.sed.

"The lean white bear hath seen it in the long, long Arctic night, The musk-ox knows the standard that flouts the Northern Light: What is the Flag of England? Ye have but my bergs to dare, Ye have but my drifts to conquer. Go forth, for it is there!"

The South Wind sighed:--"From the Virgins my mid-sea course was ta'en Over a thousand islands lost in an idle main, Where the sea-egg flames on the coral and the long-backed breakers croon Their endless ocean legends to the lazy, locked lagoon.

"Strayed amid lonely islets, mazed amid outer keys, I waked the palms to laughter--I tossed the scud in the breeze-- Never was isle so little, never was sea so lone, But over the scud and the palm-trees an English flag was flown.

"I have wrenched it free from the halliard to hang for a wisp on the Horn; I have chased it north to the Lizard--ribboned and rolled and torn; I have spread its fold o'er the dying, adrift in a hopeless sea; I have hurled it swift on the slaver, and seen the slave set free.

"My basking sunfish know it, and wheeling albatross, Where the lone wave fills with fire beneath the Southern Cross.

What is the Flag of England? Ye have but my reefs to dare, Ye have but my seas to furrow. Go forth, for it is there!"

The East Wind roared:--"From the Kuriles, the Bitter Seas, I come, And me men call the Home-Wind, for I bring the English home.

Look--look well to your s.h.i.+pping! By the breath of my mad typhoon I swept your close-packed Praya and beached your best at Kowloon!

"The reeling junks behind me and the racing seas before, I raped your richest roadstead--I plundered Singapore!

I set my hand on the Hoogli; as a hooded snake she rose, And I flung your stoutest steamers to roost with the startled crows.

"Never the lotus closes, never the wild-fowl wake, But a soul goes out on the East Wind that died for England's sake-- Man or woman or suckling, mother or bride or maid-- Because on the bones of the English the English Flag is stayed.

"The desert-dust hath dimmed it, the flying wild-a.s.s knows, The scared white leopard winds it across the taintless snows.

What is the Flag of England? Ye have but my sun to dare, Ye have but my sands to travel. Go forth, for it is there!"

The West Wind called:--"In squadrons the thoughtless galleons fly That bear the wheat and cattle lest street-bred people die.

They make my might their porter, they make my house their path, Till I loose my neck from their rudder and whelm them all in my wrath.

"I draw the gliding fog-bank as a snake is drawn from the hole, They bellow one to the other, the frighted s.h.i.+p-bells toll, For day is a drifting terror till I raise the shroud with my breath, And they see strange bows above them and the two go locked to death.