| Long time I ploughed the ocean wide, A life of toil I spent; But now in harbour safe arrived From care and discontent. My anchor’s cast, my sails are furled, And now I am at rest. Of all the parts throughout the world, Sailors, this is the best. |
Our next example is from a stone in Castle Street burial-ground, Hull, which is so fast decaying that already some parts of the inscription are obliterated:—
| Sacred to the memory of William Walker, . . . . . r of the Sloop Janatt, . . . . . . . who was unfortunately drowned off Flamborough Head, 17th April, 1823. Aged 41 years. This stone was Erected by his Countrymen in remembrance of his Death. |
| I have left the troubled ocean, And now laid down to sleep, In hopes I shall set sail Our Saviour Christ to meet. |
A gravestone in Horncastle churchyard, Lincolnshire, has this epitaph:—
| My helm was gone, My sails were rent, My mast went by the board, My hull it struck upon a rock, Receive my soul, O Lord! |
On a sailor’s gravestone in the burial-ground at Hamilton, we are told:—
| The seas he ploughed for twenty years, Without the smallest dread or fears: And all that time was never known To strike upon a bank or stone. |