Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/251

Rh "Captain, they lack 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 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!"

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.