THE CALL OF THE SEA.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 109, 9 May 1908, Page 6

THE CALL OF THE SEA.

When the furthest sea is charted, ' when my lights are getting low, You must lay me. out on deck and head away - y Where the clipper ships are tacking and the great long liners race, And the smoky tramps go thrashing down the bay; ■ .With the scent of teak about me and the smell of tarry cables, -a I shall watch the shore light drop- ■•.. ' ping out of sight, And the great green windy billows they will drone a sea-dirge for me, While I bid the swinging, stars a long good-night. r _ You must stitch me up in canvas, you must heave me overboard With a fire-bar as a keepsake from the crew; Never mind the "Jack or Biblekeep her engines going hard, For I miss the muffled beating of the screw; Somewhere in the North Pacific, where the loony- whales are spouting, And the clean blue track is clear for miles and miles j I sH&ll lie iso still and quiet in the Port of Missing Traders, ; Where-the ships of all the world make afterwhiles.

Ay, so very snug and quiet on the rolling waste of sands, With no weeping women wailing for the dead. Down among the long-oared galleys I shall watch the traders pass, And the great black-bellied liners overhead— Overhead a ghostly white moon through the broken cloud-gaps .racing, And the smoke-stacks spitting cinders at the sky; I shall hear the white gulls screeching, and their far-off pilot calling . Down the long line where the lagging stragglers fly.It's a pleasant harbour, and its's full of masts and spars, And there's dancing and there's fiddling all day long: And you're always on full rations, and it's always double'rum, And the hand who has to draw it draws it strong. Pay her off and get her going. Oh! you lazy sons of Devon. There's a hooker lying down below, For another" hand is wanted, and she's waiting,- and Fm ready, And the sea is calling loud, and I must ffo. —T. P.'s Weekly.