Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/179

Rh  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!



 mother the Frigate, bepainted and fine, Made play for her bully the Ship of the Line; So we, her bold daughters by iron and fire, Accost and decoy to our masters' desire.

Now, pray you, consider what toils we endure, Night-walking wet sea-lanes, a guard and a lure; Since half of our trade is that same pretty sort As mettlesome wenches do practise in port.

For this is our office: to spy and make room, As hiding yet guiding the foe to their doom. Surrounding, confounding, we bait and betray And tempt them to battle the seas' width away.

The pot-bellied merchant foreboding no wrong With headlight and sidelight he lieth along, Till, lightless and lightfoot and lurking, leap we To force him discover his business by sea. 