POETRY.
NELSON'S STRAIT.
Tux Merchant Service scores again, although it isn't long Since very pretty news came through from far-away Hong Kong.
The sailormen were happy then ; they raised the flowing can To Captain Robert 'Wetherell, who bore him like a man And fought the pirates China way; and now they lift the cheer And drain their measures to the health of Douglas Reid Kinneir!
The Fleet joins in to honour him, and we must join them too— Upstanding here, we drink, Kinneir And all our loves to you ! The Germans chased the Ortega'; they thought her end was plain ; .Aeh Himmel, how they licked their• lips! they'd half her speed again.
Surrender! roared the cannonade that thundered from their prow, it sure to have you presently, we'll try to have you now. Our British ship was charge enough to try the stoutest nerves- Eight-thousand tons, a bursting hold, three hundred French reserves—
But Captain Douglas whacked her up to all the pace she'd go, And still the Germans licked their lips, for they were gaining so. They never thought of Nelson's Strait—uncharted and abhorred, By all the rules of Sprechen Sie it wasn't on the board. But Captain Douglas overhauled was one to do and dare; And rescue came with that deathless name, for the Nelson touch was there : The master of the ' Ortega' was master of his fate; He kept the stokers going strong, and he crammed her at the Strait.
The cruiser watched him disappear; and knowing what it meant, Outsailored by a merchantman, she turned her tail and went.
A nasty, tricky devil's-ditch, where currents boil and swell, A twisty, reef-strewn channel-way, with pinnacles as well, A frowning cliff on either hand, Old Harry's own delight ; A rocky bottom, hard as nails, where anchors cannot bite!
But Captain Douglas only saw the way to Rio town; He wiped his brow, and thanked his stars, and slowed his engines down.
There wasn't any hurry now; he sent the boats ahead And crept behind them, yard by yard—his pilot was the lead.
Without a scratch he worked her through by seamanship and skill, And he took her safe to Rio, with the old Flag flying still.
A health to him, with all our loves! He wiped the German's eye; He won the goal of a valiant soul that dared to do, or die; He heartens every Britisher•, and doings such as these Bring home to every foreigner our prowess on the seas, And—dearer• to a noble heart than any praise or pelf— He screws the Service up a peg by what he did himself : There's not a Merchant officer, there's not a Jack below, There's not a red-eared cabin-boy who doesn't feel a glow, Who doesn't prize his calling more, and stiffen up his lip Because a British mariner gave Sprechen Sie the slip— Our Captain of the ' Ortega,' who carried home his freight, And left the Germans gasping at the mouth of Nelson's Strait.
CHRISTIAN TEARLE.
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