Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/176

158  Seven men from all the world, back to town again, Rollin' down the Ratcliffe Road drunk and raising Cain: ''Seven men from out of Hell. Ain't the owners gay,'' 'Cause we took the "Bolivar" safe across the Bay?





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 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 of heels wherewith to run
 * From the grip of a close-fought fight.

She opened fire at seven miles—
 * As ye shoot at a bobbing cork—

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