THE NAVY.

Observer, Volume XXXV, Issue 49, 14 August 1915, Page 18

THE NAVY.

[Fob the Observer.]

See the stately British ships, Battleships, As they cleave the whitened blue, Varied courses to pursue, O'er the waters, far away, Guarding headland, beach and bay, Lo, they reel On the billows' foaming crest, Steaming quickly to the West, And the North and East and South, While the giant cannon's mouth Made of steel, Through its chilly iron lips Flings defiance from the ships Of the Navy! Do the cruisers never tire, Never tire, As they wheel in silent line O'er the mist-enshrouded brine, Moving down unnumbered miles From their home, the British Isles f Now they turn With the Ensign at the peak Till they half appear to speak, And each vessel of the King Looks an active living thing; And you yearn With an uncontrolled desire For the guns to open fire In the Navy! The destroyers seem to fly, Really fly! Thirty knots an hour or more, Watch them run along the sliore, Through the grimmest winter gale, With their heavy coats of mail. Laughing loud On the decks the sailors throng, Passing cheery words along: "Kaiser Billy must beware, We can travel like the air!" They are proud That the German vessels fly When they sight the naked eye Of the Navy, Ho, the cunning submarines, Submarines! They ascend towards the top Of the ocean, there to stop For a time, then shoot below Where the giddy mermaids go, And to speed O'er the seaweed-hampered caves Underneath the rolling waves, While the seamen risk their lives For their country, home and wives! German greed Troubles not the submarines, For to know what courage means We must step behind the scenes In our Navy! E. L. Eyre.