Merchantmen

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23809, 9 November 1940, Page 4 (Supplement)

Merchantmen

These were the ships that kept on going When ihe seas Were thick with the War's black sowing. Great ocean liners in white paint and gold, Shabby little colliers, all grime and green mould, Up-to-date cargo boats ugly as tin, Old seoen-knotters With their plates rusted thin, Has-been clipper-ships, laid up ,'or ages, Fitted out and rigged new and sent to earn their wages, Coal ships and cotton ships, Sound ships and rotten ships, From Thames and Clyde and Merseyside they fetched their ports no more; Tync ships and Humber-ships, Grain-ships and lumber-ships— Ships that went down in the war! These Were the men that knew no shirking The hungry waters where death lay lurking— Grizzled old skippers that had grown grey bf shipt,

Yoang brassbounders with the down on their lips, White-faced black squad and tanned A.B's In oil-stained boilersuits and lorn dungarees, That dropped beside the wheel on the deck all bloodied, That drowned in the darkness when ihe stokehold flooded, That froze on the rafts in the bitter Atlantic, That drifted in boats till the thirst drove them frantic; Some with Wives and youngsters to cry their eyes red, Some with neither chick nor child to care that they were dead. Not reckoned greatly daring man, But eoery-day seafaring men, Who stood their trick and earned their whack and took their fun ashore, Until on every tide for us They took their chance and died for us— Men that went down in the war I Written by "Miss C. Fox Smith" for the Mercantile Marine Memorial in Trinity Square, London, dedicated to those wiiQ sacrificed their lives ia tne O-rcafrAvais 10144018.