Explore "A Nautical Ballad" by Josephine Daskam Bacon on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A capital ship for an ocean trip, / Was the "Walloping Window-blind"; / No gale that blew dismayed her crew / Or troubled the captain's mind. / The man at the wheel was taught to feel / Contempt for the wildest blow, / And it often appeared, when the weather had cleared, / That he'd been in his bunk below.
"The boatswain's mate was very sedate, / Yet fond of amusement, too; / And he played hop-scotch with the starboard watch, / While the captain tickled the crew. / And the gunner we had was apparently mad, / For he sat on the after rail, / And fired salutes with the captain's boots, / In the teeth of the booming gale.