Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/637

 INCLUSIVE EDITION, 1885-1918 619

Broadsides the Atlantic

We tumble short-handed,

With shot-holes to plug and new canvas to bend,

And off the Azores,

Dutch, Dons and Monsieurs

Are waiting to terrify poor honest men.

Napoleon's embargo

Is laid on all cargo

Which comfort or aid to King George may intend;

And since roll, twist and leaf,

Of all comforts is chief,

They try for to steal it from poor honest men!

With no heart for fight,

We take refuge in flight

But fire as we run, our retreat to defend;

Until our stern-chasers

Cut up her fore-braces,

And she flies off the wind from us poor honest men!

'Twixt the Forties and Fifties,

South-eastward the drift is,

And so, when we think we are making Land's End,

Alas, it is Ushant

With half the King's Navy,

Blockading French ports against poor honest men!

But they may not quit station

(Which is our salvation)

So swiftly we stand to the Nor'ard again;

And finding the tail of

A homeward-bound convoy,

We slip past the Scillies like poor honest men