THE BALLAD OF THE "CLAM

PHERDOWN"

It was our war-ship "Clampherdown
Would sweep the Channel clean;
Wherefore she kept her hatches close,
When the merry Channel chops arose,
To save the bleached marine.

She has one bow-gun of a hundred ton,
And a great stern-gun beside;

They dipped their noses deep in the sea,
They racked their stays and stanchions free
In the wash of the wind-whipped tide.

It was our war-ship "Clampherdown"
Fell in with a cruiser light

That carried the dainty Hotchkiss gun
And a pair o' heels wherewith to run
From the grip of a close-fought fight.

As ye shoot at a bobbing cork;

And once she fired, and twice she fired,
Till the bow-gun drooped like a lily tired
That lolls udon the stalk.

"Captain, the bow-gun melts apace, The deck beams break below:

'Twere well to rest for an hour or twain, And botch the shattered plates again," And he answered, "Make it so."

She opened fire within the mile

As ye shoot at the flying duck;

And the great stern-gun shot fair and true,
With the heave of the ship, to the stainless blue,
And the great stern-turret stuck.

"Captain, the turret fills with steam,
The feed-pipes burst below

You can hear the hiss of helpless ram,
You can hear the twisted runner jam."
And he answered, "Turn and go."

It was our war-ship "Clampherdown,"
And grimly did she roll;

Swung round to take the cruiser's fire,

As the White Whale faces the Thresher's ire,
When they war by the frozen Pole.

"Captain, the shells are falling fast, And faster still fall we;

And it is not meet for English stock

To bide in the heart of an eight-day clock
The death they can not see."

The Ballad of the "Clampherdown"

"Lie down, lie down, my bold A. B.— We drift upon her beam;

44

We dare not ram for she can run;
And dare ye fire another gun,

And die in the peeling steam ?"

It was our war-ship "Clampherdown'
That carried an armor-belt;

And fifty feet at stern and bow

Lay bare as the paunch at the purser's sow
To the hail of the Nordenfeldt.

'Captain, they lack us through and through;
The chilled-steel bolts are swift!

We have emptied the bunkers in open sea,
Their sharpnel bursts where our coal should be."
And he answered, "Let her drift."

It was our war-ship "Clampherdown '
Swung round upon the tide ;

"

Her two dumb guns glared south and north,
And the blood and the bubbling steam ran forth,
And she ground the cruiser's side.

Captain, they cry, the fight is done;

They bid you send your sword."

And he answered, “Grapple her stern and bow. They have asked for the steel. They shall have

it now.

Out cutlasses and board 1"

A. B: Able bodied seaman.

It was our war-ship "Clampherdown"
Spewed up four hundred men ;

And the scalded stokers yelped delight,

As they rolled in the waist, and heard the fight Stamp o'er their steel-walled pen.

They cleared the cruiser end to end,
From conning-tower to hold.

They fought as they fought in Nelson's fleet; They were stripped to the waist, they were bare to the feet,

As it was in the days of old.

It was the sinking "Clampherdown
Heaved up her battered side —
And carried a million pounds in steel
To the cod and the corpse-fed conger.eel
And the scour of the Channel tide.

It was the crew of the "Clampherdown "
Stood out to sweep the sea,

On a cruiser won from an ancient foe,
As it was in the days of long ago,
And as it still shall be.

TOMLINSON

Now, Tomlinson gave up the ghost in his house in Berkeley Square,

And a Spirit came to his bedside, and gripped him by the hair

A Spirit gripped him by the hair, and carried him far

away,

Till he heard, as the roar of a rain-fed ford, the roar of the Milky Way

Till he heard the roar of the Milky Way die down and drone and cease,

And they came to the Gate within the Wall where Peter holds the keys.

"Stand up, stand up now, Tomlinson, and answer loud and high

The good that ye did for the sake of men or ever ye came to die

The good that ye did for the sake of men in little earth so lone!"

And the naked soul of Tomlinson grew white as a rain-washed bone.

Oh, I have a friend on earth," he said, "that was

my priest and guide,

And well would he answer all for me, if he were by

my side."

-"For that ye strove in neighbor-love it shall be

written fair;