Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/248

 THE BALLAD OF THE "CLAMPHERDOWN"

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 had 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 staunchions 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.

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