It was our war-ship Clampherdown'

That carried an armour-belt;

But fifty feet at stern and bow

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

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

'We have emptied the bunkers in open sea, 'Their shrapnel 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 cried, the fight is done, 'They bid you send your sword.'

L

And he answered, 'Grapple her stern and bow.

'They have asked for the steel. They shall have

it now;

'Out cutlasses and board!'

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

1

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.

THE BALLAD OF THE 'BOLIVAR'

Seven men from all the world back to Docks again, Rolling down the Ratcliffe Road drunk and raising Cain:

Give the girls another drink 'fore we sign awayWe that took the 'Bolivar' out across the Bay!

We put out from Sunderland loaded down with rails;

We put back to Sunderland 'cause our cargo

shifted;

We put out from Sunderland-met the winter gales

Seven days and seven nights to the Start we

drifted.

Racketing her rivets loose, smoke-stack white

as snow,

All the coals adrift adeck, half the rails below,

Leaking like a lobster-pot, steering like a

dray

Out we took the 'Bolivar,' out across the

Bay!

One by one the lights came up, winked and let us

by;

Mile by mile we waddled on, coal and fo'c'sle

short;

Met a blow that laid us down, heard a bulkhead

fly;

Left the 'Wolf' behind us with a two-foot list

to port.

Trailing like a wounded duck, working out

her soul;

Clanging like a smithy-shop after every roll;
Just a funnel and a mast lurching through

the spray

So we threshed the 'Bolivar' out across the

Bay!