The North Sea Patrol

Where the East wind is brewed fresh and fresh every morning,
And the balmy night-breezes blow straight from the Pole,
I heard a Destroyer sing: "What an enjoyable life does one lead on the North Sea Patrol!

"To blow things to bits is our business (and Fritz's),
Which means there are mine-fields wherever you stroll.
Unless you've particular wish to die quick, you'll avoid steering close to the North Sea Patrol.

"We warn from disaster the mercantile master
Who takes in high Dudgeon our life-saving role,
For every one's grousing at Docking and Dowsing
The marks and the lights on the North Sea Patrol."

[Twelve verses omitted.]

So swept but surviving, half drowned but still driving
I watched her head out through the swell off the shoal,
And I heard her propellers roar, "Write to poor fellers
Who run such a Hell as the North Sea Patrol!"

Rudyard

Rudyard Kipling was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. His notable works include the novels 'The Jungle Book,' 'Kim,' and the poem 'If—.' Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907, making him the youngest recipient of the award.

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Mark well what I do say!
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The Merchantmen

King Solomon drew merchantmen,
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From Tarshish unto Tyre,
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Which Hiram rafted down;
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Coastwise, cross-seas, round the world and back again,
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The Coastwise Lights

Our brows are bound with spindrift and the weed is on our knees;
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The Derelict

I was the staunchest of our fleet
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The Rowers

The banked oars fell an hundred strong,
And backed and threshed and ground,
But bitter was the rowers' song
As they brought the war-boat round.


They had no heart for the rally and roar
That makes the whale-bath smoke ,
When the great blades cleave and hold and leave
As one on the racing stroke.


They sang: What reckoning do you keep,
And steer by what star,
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"Last night you swore our voyage was done,
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Farewell And Adieu...

Farewell and adieu to you,
Harwich Ladies,
Farewell and adieu to you, ladies ashore!
For we've received orders to work to the eastward
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We'll duck and we'll dive underneath the North Seas,
Until we strike something that doesn't expect us.
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The first thing we did was to dock in a minefield,
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With tri-nitro-toluol hogging our run.
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