Page:The Seven Seas (Kipling, 1896).djvu/51

Rh Till, through the red tornado,

That lashed us nigh to blind,

We saw The Dutchman plunging,

Full canvas, head to wind!

We've heard the Midnight Leadsman

That calls the black deep down—

Ay, thrice we've heard The Swimmer,

The Thing that may not drown.

On frozen bunt and gasket

The sleet-cloud drave her hosts,

When, manned by more than signed with us

We passed the Isle o' Ghosts!

And north, amid the hummocks,

A biscuit-toss below,

We met the silent shallop

That frighted whalers know;

For, down a cruel ice-lane,

That opened as he sped,

We saw dead Henry Hudson

Steer, North by West, his dead.