JACK'S RESPONSE.
(Spithead, July 23, 1887.)
[In replying to a Naval Deputation which waited upon the Queen with a Jubilee Album and Address, Her Majesty said, "she felt certain that the Navy would always uphold the honour of the Kingdom.">[
Right Royal Lady on the throne!
From stem to starn, from top to kelson,
The British Fleet is all your own,
To-day as in them times of Nelson.
'Twill help you still to rule the wave,
Though swabs may croak and lubbers twaddle;
That Album Milne our Admiral gave,
Shows many a change in rig and model,
But could they hail us at Spithead.
To-day, old Drake, or Howe or Howard,
They'd find the race as never bred,
To scour the brine, traitor or coward.
What the old Victory did of old,
The Ajax or the Devastation
Would dare to-day, and Jack makes bold,
In this here year of Jubilation,
To answer to his Sovereign's trust,
Like every British son of Adam,
('Midst the enthoosiatic bust
Of loud hoorays) his "Aye, aye, Madam!"