We stood on the deck together,
Men that had looked on death
In battle and stormy weather;
Yet a little we held our breath,
When, with the hush of death,
The great ships drew together.
Our Captain strode to the bow,
Drayton, courtly and wise,
Kindly cynic, and wise
(You hardly had known him now,
The flame of fight in his eyes!),—
His brave heart eager to feel
How the oak would tell on the steel!
But, as the space grew short,
A little he seemed to shun us;
Out peered a form grim and lanky,
And a voice yelled, "Hard-a-port!
Hard-a-port!—here's the damned Yankee
Coming right down on us!"
He sheered, but the ships ran foul
With a gnarring shudder and growl;
He gave us a deadly gun;
But as he passed in his pride
(Rasping right alongside!),
The old Flag, in thunder-tones
Poured in her port broadside,
Rattling his iron hide
And cracking his timber-bones!
Just then, at speed on the Foe,
With her bow all weathered and brown,
The great Lackawanna came down
Full tilt, for another blow;—
We were forging ahead,
She reversed—but, for all our pains,
Rammed the old Hartford, instead,
Just for'ard the mizzen chains!
Ah! how the masts did buckle and bend,
And the stout hull ring and reel,
As she took us right on end!
(Vain were engine and wheel,
She was under full steam)—
With the roar of a thunder-stroke
Her two thousand tons of oak
Brought up on us, right abeam!
A wreck, as it looked, we lay
(Rib and plank-sheer gave way
To the stroke of that giant wedge!)—
Here, after all, we go—
The old ship is gone!—ah, no,
But cut to the water's edge.
Never mind then,—at him again!
His flurry now can't last long;
He'll never again see land,—
Try that on him, Marchand!
On him again, brave Strong!
Heading square at the hulk,
Full on his beam we bore;
But the spine of the huge Sea-Hog
Lay on the tide like a log,
He vomited flame no more.
By this, he had found it hot;—
Half the fleet, in an angry ring,
Closed round the hideous thing,
Hammering with solid shot,
And bearing down, bow on bow;
He has but a minute to choose,—
Life or renown?—which now
Will the Rebel Admiral lose?