POETRY.
BRITISH MERCHANT SERVICE, 1915.
OH down by Millwall Basin as I went the other day, I met a skipper that I knew, and to him I did say : " Now what's the cargo, Captain, that brings- you up this way P"
"Oh, I've been up and down (said be) and round about also . From Sydney to the Skagerack, and Kiel to Callao .. With a leaking steam-pipe all the way to Californ-i-o With pots and pans and ivory fans and every kind of thing, Rails and nails and cotton bales and sewer pipes and string . . But now I'm through with cargoes, and I'm here to serve the King!
And if it's sweeping mines (to which my fancy somewhat leans) Or hanging out with booby-traps for the skulking submarines, I'm here to do my blooming best and give the beggars beans!
A rough job and a tough job is the best job for me, And what or where 1 don't much care, I'll take what it may be, For a tight place is the right place when it's foul weather at seal " There's not a port he doesn't know from Melbourne to New York; He's as hard as a lump of harness beef, and as salt as pickled pork . . .
And he'll stand by a wreck in a murdering gale and count it part of his work
He's the terror of the fo'c's'le when he heals its various ills With turpentine and mustard leaves, and poultices and pills . .
But he knows the sea like the palm of his hand, as a shepherd knows the bills.
He'll spin you yarns from dawn to dark—and half of 'em are true.!
He swears in a score of languages, and maybe talks in two ! And . . . he'll lower a boat in a hurricane to save a drowning crew.
A rough job or a tough job—he's handled two or three— And what or where he won't much care, nor ask what the risk maybe...
For a tight place is the right place when it's wild weather at
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