(1915)
In Lowestoft a boat was laid,
Mark well what
I do say!
And she was built for the
herring trade,
But she has gone
a-rovin’, a-rovin’, a-rovin’,
The Lord knows
where!
They gave her Government coal
to burn,
And a Q.F. gun at bow and
stern,
And sent her out a-rovin’,
etc.
Her skipper was mate of a
bucko ship
Which always killed one man
per trip,
So he is used to rovin’,
etc.
Her mate was skipper of a
chapel in Wales,
And so he fights in topper
and tails—
Religi-ous tho’ rovin’,
etc.
Her engineer is fifty-eight,
So he’s prepared to
meet his fate,
Which ain’t unlikely
rovin’, etc.
Her leading-stoker’s
seventeen,
So he don’t know what
the Judgments mean,
Unless he cops ’em rovin’,
etc.
Her cook was chef in the Lost
Dogs’ Home,
Mark well what
I do say!
And I’m sorry for Fritz
when they all come
A-rovin’,
a-rovin’, a-roarin’ and a-rovin’,
Round the North
Sea rovin’,
The Lord knows
where!
The Navy is very old and very wise. Much of her
wisdom is on record and available for reference; but
more of it works in the unconscious blood of those
who serve her. She has a thousand years of experience,
and can find precedent or parallel for any situation
that the force of the weather or the malice of the
King’s enemies may bring about.
The main principles of sea-warfare hold good throughout
all ages, and, so far as the Navy has been allowed
to put out her strength, these principles have
been applied over all the seas of the world. For
matters of detail the Navy, to whom all days are alike,
has simply returned to the practice and resurrected
the spirit of old days.
In the late French wars, a merchant sailing out of
a Channel port might in a few hours find himself laid
by the heels and under way for a French prison.
His Majesty’s ships of the Line, and even the
big frigates, took little part in policing the waters
for him, unless he were in convoy. The sloops,
cutters, gun-brigs, and local craft of all kinds were
supposed to look after that, while the Line was busy
elsewhere. So the merchants passed resolutions
against the inadequate protection afforded to the
trade, and the narrow seas were full of single-ship
actions; mail-packets, West Country brigs, and fat
East Indiamen fighting, for their own hulls and cargo,
anything that the watchful French ports sent against
them; the sloops and cutters bearing a hand if they
happened to be within reach.
