Yarn

We lay at St. Helen's, and easy she rode
With one anchor catted and fresh-water stowed;
When the barge came alongside like bullocks we roared,
For we knew what we carried with Nelson aboard.

Our Captain was Hardy, the pride of us all,
I'll ask for none better when danger shall call;
He was hardy by nature and Hardy by name,
And soon by his conduct to honour he came.

The third day the Lizard was under our lee,
Where the Ajax and Thunderer joined us at sea,
But what with foul weather and tacking about,
When we sighted the Fleet we were thirteen days out.

The Captains they all came aboard quick enough,
But the news that they brought was as heavy as duff;
So backward an enemy never was seen,
They were harder to come at than Cheeks the Marine.

The lubbers had hare's lugs where seamen have ears,
So we stowed all saluting and smothered our cheers,
And to humour their stomachs and tempt them to dine,
In the offing we showed them but six of the line.

One morning the topmen reported below
The old Agamemnon escaped from the foe.
Says Nelson: "My lads, there'll be honour for some,
For we're sure of a battle now Berry has come."

"Up hammocks!" at last cried the bo'sun at dawn;
The guns were cast loose and the tompions drawn;
The gunner was bustling the shot racks to fill,
And "All hands to quarters!" was piped with a will.

We now saw the enemy bearing ahead,
And to East of them Cape Traflagar it was said,
'Tis a name we remember from father to son,
That the days of old England may never be done.

The Victory led, to her flag it was due,
Tho' the Téméraires thought themselves Admirals too;
But Lord Nelson he hailed them with masterful grace:
"Cap'n Harvey, I'll thank you to keep in your place."

To begin with we closed the Bucentaure alone,
An eighty-gun ship and their Admiral's own;
We raked her but once, and the rest of the day
Like a hospital hulk on the water she lay.

To our battering next the Redoutable struck,
But her sharpshooters gave us the worst of the luck:
Lord Nelson was wounded, most cruel to tell.
"They've done for me; Hardy!" he cried as he fell.

To the cockpit in silence they carried him past,
And sad were the looks that were after him cast;
His face with a kerchief he tried to conceal,
But we knew him too well from the truck to the keel.

When the Captain reported a victory won,
"Thank God!" he kept saying, "my duty I've done."
At last came the moment to kiss him good-bye,
And the Captain for once had the salt in his eye.

"Now anchor, dear Hardy," the Admiral cried;
But before we could make it he fainted and died.
All night in the trough of the sea we were tossed,
And for want of ground-tackle good prizes were lost.

Then we hauled down the flag, at the fore it was red,
And blue at the mizzen was hoisted instead
By Nelson's famed Captain, the pride of each tar,
Who fought in the Victory off Cape Traflagar.

Northumberland

"The Old and Bold"

When England sets her banner forth
  And bids her armour shine,
She'll not forget the famous North,
  The lads of moor and Tyne;
And when the loving-cup's in hand,
  And Honour leads the cry,
They know not old Northumberland
  Who'll pass her memory by.

When Nelson sailed for Trafalgar
  With all his country's best,
He held them dear as brothers are,
  But one beyond the rest.
For when the fleet with heroes manned
  To clear the decks began,
The boast of old Northumberland
  He sent to lead the van.

Himself by Victory's bulwarks stood
  And cheered to see the sight;
"That noble fellow Collingwood,
  How bold he goes to fight!"
Love, that the league of Ocean spanned,
  Heard him as face to face;
"What would he give, Northumberland,
  To share our pride of place?"

The flag that goes the world around
  And flaps on every breeze
Has never gladdened fairer ground
  Or kinder hearts than these.
So when the loving-cup's in hand
  And Honour leads the cry,
They know not old Northumberland
  Who'll pass her memory by.

For A Trafalgar Cenotaph

Lover of England, stand awhile and gaze
With thankful heart, and lips refrained from praise;
They rest beyond the speech of human pride
Who served with Nelson and with Nelson died.

Craven

(Mobile Bay, 1864)

Over the turret, shut in his iron-clad tower,
  Craven was conning his ship through smoke and flame;
Gun to gun he had battered the fort for an hour,
  Now was the time for a charge to end the game.

There lay the narrowing channel, smooth and grim,
  A hundred deaths beneath it, and never a sign;
There lay the enemy's ships, and sink or swim
  The flag was flying, and he was head of the line.

The fleet behind was jamming; the monitor hung
  Beating the stream; the roar for a moment hushed,
Craven spoke to the pilot; slow she swung;
  Again he spoke, and right for the foe she rushed.

Into the narrowing channel, between the shore
  And the sunk torpedoes lying in treacherous rank;
She turned but a yard too short; a muffled roar,
  A mountainous wave, and she rolled, righted, and sank.

Over the manhole, up in the iron-clad tower,
  Pilot and Captain met as they turned to fly:
The hundredth part of a moment seemed an hour,
  For one could pass to be saved, and one must die.

They stood like men in a dream: Craven spoke,
  Spoke as he lived and fought, with a Captain's pride,
"After you, Pilot." The pilot woke,
  Down the ladder he went, and Craven died.

    All men praise the deed and the manner, but we—-
      We set it apart from the pride that stoops to the proud,
    The strength that is supple to serve the strong and free,
      The grace of the empty hands and promises loud:

    Sidney thirsting, a humbler need to slake,
      Nelson waiting his turn for the surgeon's hand,
    Lucas crushed with chains for a comrade's sake,
      Outram coveting right before command:

    These were paladins, these were Craven's peers,
      These with him shall be crowned in story and song,
    Crowned with the glitter of steel and the glimmer of tears,
      Princes of courtesy, merciful, proud, and strong.

Messmates

He gave us all a good-bye cheerily
  At the first dawn of day;
We dropped him down the side full drearily
  When the light died away.
It's a dead dark watch that he's a-keeping there,
And a long, long night that lags a-creeping there,
Where the Trades and the tides roll over him
  And the great ships go