"READY, AYE READY!"
(A Sailor Song Up to Date.)
Master John Bull. "Just you wait Two or Three Years, till I make her Swim,—then I'll show you!">[
[Sir Edward Reed said that with the armoured citadel intact, and an unarmoured end destroyed, the ship is in imminent danger of upsetting. The Victoria was bound to capsize with the injury she received. There were other ships that were equally bound to capsize, when they were injured in the same manner; the reason being that instead of the armed citadel being the major part of the structure, and the unarmoured ends the minor portion, we had chosen to make the unarmoured ends the major part, measuring more than half the entire length of the ship. The ships likely to capsize in a similar manner, if they received like injury in peace or in action, were the Agamemnon, Ajax, Anson, Benbow, Camperdown, Collingwood, Colossus, Edinburgh, Howe, Inflexible, Rodney, and Sans Pareil.]
Air—"Hearts of Oak."
Come, cheer up, my lads! 'tis to Davy we steer!
(We add to his Locker 'bout one ship per year.)
To capsizing we call you in cheeriest staves,
For what is so certain as death 'neath the waves?
Iron coffins our ships,
Death-doomed tars are our men.
Our ships are unsteady!
Ready, aye ready!
We'll sink or turn turtle again and again!
We ne'er see our ships (for which millions they pay),
The Ajax, the Anson, and such, but we say,
"Will they ram, or capsize, or but run slap ashore?
When we go to the bottom John Bull must—build more!"
Iron coffins our ships, &c.
Our Camperdowns, Collingwoods, Rodneys, Benbows,
Reed says are all "dangerous"—not to our foes!
If struck in their unarmoured ends they turn o'er,
And go to the bottom! How Davy must roar!
Iron coffins our ships, &c.
The Frenchy and Rooshian must laugh as they look,
And see John Bull trying, by hook or by crook,
To get his tin-kettles to keep right side up,
Agin touch of a ram, agin tap of a Krupp!
Iron coffins our ships, &c.
"Just wait two or three years," grumbles John, "and I'll show,
If my ships will but swim, I can still whop the foe.
Stop a bit—whilst my big-wigs build, blunder, debate!"
Ah! that's all mighty fine, but, my John, will they wait?
Iron coffins our ships, &c.
Britannia triumphant we all wish to see,
Quite equal to two foreign fleets, perhaps three;
So cheer up, my hearties, and banish your fears!
They will build us a ship as will float—in three years!
(Meanwhile, my lads, "chorus as before," if you please, until further orders from our Naval Oracles!)
Iron, coffins our ships,
Davy's wictims our men;
In wessels unsteady,
We're ready, aye ready,
To sink or turn turtle again and again!
