The British Navy Book

"The feathered race on pinions skim the air, Not so the mackerel, and still less the bear; Ah! who hath seen the mailèd lobster rise, Clap her broad wings, and claim the equal s...

"We're sober men and true, And quite devoid of fe-ar. In all the Royal N. There are none so smart as we are. When the wind whistles free O'er the bright blue sea We stand to our...

"It was great pity, so it was, That villanous salt-petre should be digg'd Out of the bowels of the harmless earth, Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd So cowardly; and,...

"Our ironclads and torpedo-boats Have never met the foe, But times of peace don't alter us, Our hearts are right, you know; As right and tight as in the days When glorious fight...

"The King's Navy exceeds all others in the World for three things, viz.: Beauty, Strength, and Safety. For Beauty, they are so many Royal Palaces; for Strength, so many moving C...

"The sailor who ploughs on the watery main, To war and to danger and shipwreck a brother, And the soldier who firmly stands out the campaign, Do they fight for two men who make...

WE have now followed the story of our navy, its ships, and its men up to the time when the three-masted, many-gunned man-of-war with two or three decks, and relying entirely on...

_Cymbal._ I'll show you, Sir. It's an automa, runs under water With a snug nose, and has a nimble tail Made like an auger, with which tail she wriggles Betwixt the costs[45] of...

"All, all asleep within each roof, along the rocky street, And these must be the lovers' friends, with gently sliding feet-- A stifled gasp! a dreary noise! 'The roof is in a fl...

"With grisly sound off go the great guns And heartily they crash in all at once, And from the top down come the great stones; In goes the grapnel so full of crooks, Among the ro...

"Through the fog of the fight we could dimly see, As ever the flame from the big guns flashed, That Cradock was doomed, yet his men and he, With their plates shot to junk and th...

"The various ships that were built of yore, And above them all, and strangest of all Towered the _Great Harry_, crank and tall, Whose picture was hanging on the wall, With bows...

"Come all ye jolly sailors bold, Whose hearts are cast in honour's mould, While English glory I unfold. Huzza for the _Arethusa_! Her men are staunch To their fav'rite launch, A...

"The idea that an inferior power, keeping its battleships in port and declining fleet actions, can, nevertheless, bring the trade of an enemy to a standstill, has no basis eithe...

"Ye mariners of England! That guard our native seas; Whose flag has braved, a thousand years, The battle and the breeze! Your glorious standard launch again To match another foe...

"Piracy was the exercise, the trade, the glory, and the virtue of the Scandinavian youth. Impatient of a bleak climate and narrow limits, they started from the banquet, grasped...

"Storm and sea were Britain's bulwarks, Long ere Britons won their name; Mightier far than pikes and halberds Wind and wave upheld her fame; Storm and sea are Britain's brothers...

"The King's own galley, he called it _Trenchthemer_ That was first on way, and came the ship full near. . . . . . . . . . . . The ship cast hooks out, the galley to them to draw...

"I saw a mast abaft the light In the tail of the offshore breeze, A beacon flared on Dover Head, A lean hull slipped the quays; And out of the mist beyond the Fore, Hell howled...

THE next phase of the naval operations in the Channel and North Sea does not afford quite such satisfactory reading as the "Battle of the Bight", for the loss of several of our...

"A shipman was ther ... All in a gown of faulding[8] to the knee, A dagger hanging by a lace had he About his neck under his arm adown; The hot summer had made his hue all brown...