Told in gallant deeds

by Marie Belloc Lowndes

Thou hast thy heart’s desire.

Grenville, whom nought could quell,

Thou dost hand on thy fire.

And thou that had’st no peer,

Nelson! thou need’st not fear:

Thy sons and heirs are here,

Nor shall they shame their sire.”

The sea has always bred heroes. At the Battle of Trafalgar one of the French captains had both his legs shot off. He had himself placed in a barrel of bran, and went on directing his men in the hour of defeat to the end.

At the Battle of the Nile a little midshipman, only fourteen years old, named John Hindmarsh, gave the order which saved the Bellerophon. Seeing that the fire in L’Orient would spread to the Bellerophon, he got some men down and cut her cable and then had the sprit-sail set. The captain was below, having a wound dressed, and the first lieutenant was also below on duty. Hindmarsh was publicly thanked by Nelson himself.

Then it was wooden ships and sails; now it is ships of steel and complicated machinery. But the spirit of Navy men remains every whit as cool and gallant.