(_August 28, 1914_)
Ghostly ships in a ghostly sea,
(Here's to Drake in the Spanish Main!)
Hark to the turbines, running free,
Oil-cups full and the orders plain.
Plunging into the misty night,
Surging into the rolling brine,
Never a word, and never a light,
--This for England, that love of mine!
Look! a gleam on the starboard bow,
(Here's to the _Fighting Téméraire_!)
Quartermaster, be ready now,
Two points over, and keep her there.
Ghostly ships--let the foemen grieve.
Yon's the Admiral tight and trim,
And one more--with an empty sleeve--
Standing a little aft of him!
Slender, young, in a coat of blue,
(Here's to the _Agamemnon's_ pride!)
Out of the mists that long he knew,
Out of the _Victory_, where he died,
Here to the battle-front he came.
See, he smiles in his gallant way!
Ghostly ships in a ghostly game,
Roaring guns on a ghostly day!
There in his white silk smalls he stands,
(Here's to Nelson, with three times three!)
Coming out of the misty lands
Far, far over the misty sea.
Now the Foe is a crippled wreck,
Limping out of the deadly fight.
Smiling yond on the quarter-deck
Stands the Spirit, all silver-bright.
J. E. MIDDLETON
_From "Sea Dogs and Men at Arms"--
G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. By
permission of the Author_