The old Princess Amelia was not backward on that day,
She lost her valiant captain all in the bloody fray.
Then our ship being so disabled and our rigging shot away,
And twenty of our brave fellows killed in the bloody fray;
And sixty-four were wounded, a dreadful sight to see,
But yet the rest were willing to engage the enemy, &c.
Billy was once singing the above ditty with a voice as melodious as that of the raven, when old Bob Perkins (a droll old guardo midshipman) began another that annoyed him sadly; but taking great care to be in a place where Billy could not easily get at him, says he, ‘Mr. Culmer, you never were a midshipman before you joined the Barfleur, and it’s well authenticated that you were cook of the celebrated Huffey so well known in days of yore.’ He then began singing the following sonnet:—
Billy the cook got drunk,
Fell down the fore ladder,
And broke his gin bladder,