The above letter was signed by the surviving crew of the Drake.
We need not add that their request was complied with; and a monument erected to the memory of Captain Baker, in the chapel of the Royal Dockyard at Portsmouth.
At the request of the author, a friend, to whom he related the pathetic story of the captain of the Drake, composed the following verses on his untimely and romantic fate:—
THE LOSS OF THE DRAKE.
1.
There's a garden full of roses, there's a cottage by the Dove;
And the trout stream flows and frets beneath the hanging crags above;
There's a seat beneath the tulip-tree, the sunbeams never scorch:
There's jasmine on those cottage walls, there's woodbine round the porch.
A gallant seaman planted them—he perished long ago;
He perished on the ocean-wave, but not against the foe.
2.
He parted with his little ones beneath that tulip-tree;
His boy was by his father's side, his darling on his knee.
'Heaven bless thee, little Emma; night and morning you must pray
To Him on high, who'll shield thee, love, when I am far away.
Nay, weep not!—if He wills it, I shall soon be back from sea;
Then how we'll laugh, and romp, and dance around the tulip-tree!
3.
'Heaven bless thee, too, my gallant boy! The God who rules the main
Can only tell if you and I shall ever meet again.
If I perish on the ocean-wave, when I am dead and gone
You'll be left with little Emma in a heartless world alone:
Your home must be her home, my boy, whenever you're a man;
You must love her, you must guard her, as a brother only can.