British Merchant Service, 1915 - Cicely Fox Smith

Oh, down by Millwall Basin as I went the other day, 

I met a skipper that I knew, and to him I did say: 

"Now what's the cargo, captain, that brings you up this way?" 

"Oh, I've been up and down (he said) and round about also ... 

From Sydney to the Skager-rack, and Kiel to Callao ... 

With a leaking steam-pipe all the way to Cali-forn-i-o... . 

"With pots and pans and ivory fans and every kind of  thing, 

Rails and nails and cotton bales and sewer-pipes and string 

But now I'm through with cargoes, and I'm here to serve the King! 

"And if it's sweeping mines (to which my fancy somewhat leans) 

Or hanging out with booby traps for the skulking submarines ... 

I'm here to do my blooming best and give the beggars beans! 

"A rough job and a tough job is the best job for me, 

And what or where I don't much care, I'll take what it may be, 

For a tight place is the right place when it's foul weather at sea!" 

There's not a port he doesn't know from Melbourne to New York; 

He's as hard as a lump of harness-beef and as salt as pickled pork; 

And ... he'll stand by a wreck in a murdering gale, and count it part of his work! 

He's the terror of the foc's'le when he heals its various ills 

With turpentine and mustard leaves and poultices and pills ... 

But he knows the sea like the palm of his hand, as a shepherd knows the hills. 

He'll spin you yarns from dawn to dark ... and half of 'em are true! 

He swears in a score of languages, and maybe talks in two! ... 

And he'll lower a boat in a hurricane to save a drowning crew! 

A rough job or a tough job he's handled two or three, 

And what or where he won't much care, nor ask what the risk may be ... 

For a tight place is the right place when there's wild weather at sea! 

---

Cicely Fox Smith (1882 - 1954) England

Source: The naval crown, ballads and songs of the war by Cicely Fox Smith, E. Mathews, 1915