Punch/Volume 147/Issue 3833/The Old Sea-Rover Speaks

by Owen Seaman

THE OLD SEA-ROVER SPEAKS.

[Referring to our victory off the Falkland Islands, the Tägliche Rundschau remarks: "On board our North Sea ships our sailors will clench their teeth and all hearts will burn with the feeling, 'England the enemy! Up and at the enemy!'" The gallant bombardment of defenceless towns on our East Coast would appear to be the immediate outcome of this intelligent attitude.]

Behind your lock-gates stowed away,
 Out of the great tides' ebb and flow,
How could you guess, this many a day,
 Who was your leading naval foe?
But now you learn, a little late—
 So loud the rumours from the sea grow—
England's the thing you have to hate,
 And not (for instance) Montenegro.

The facts are just as you've been told;
 Further disguise would be but vain;
We have a penchant from of old
 For being masters on the main;
It is a custom which we caught
 From certain sea-kings who begat us,
And that is why we like the thought
 That you propose to "up and at" us.

Come where you will—the seas are wide;
 And choose your Day—they're all alike;
You'll find us ready where we ride
 In calm or storm and wait to strike;
But—if of shame your shameless Huns
 Can yet retrieve some casual traces—
Please fight our men and ships and guns,
 Not women-folk and watering-places.
O. S.

 

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