This was written circa mid 1940's by my Dad while he was in the Coast Gaurd during WW2...recently came across it and hope you all like it...ed

(For you Dad, hope you are enjoying the afterlife, love you!)

Oh, she ain't packed down with cannon;
She's got no torpedo tube;
To attract the country rube.
For her crew don't brag of killin',
Nor the joys of bloody strife;
For they're tendin' to their business
Which is savin' human life.

When she steams into the harbor
People don't flock 'round like bees:
For she ain't no grim destroyer,
No dark terror of the seas.
And there ain't a load of romance,
To the guy that doesn't know,
In a ship that just saves vessels
When the icy Northers blow.

But the men that sail the ocean
In a wormy, rotten craft,
When the sea ahead is mountains
With a hell-blown gale abaft;
When the main mast cracks and topples,
And she's lurchin' in the trough -
Them's the guys that greets the Cutter
With the smiles that won't come off.

When the old storm signal's flyin'
Every vessel seeks a lee,
"Cept the Cutter, which ups anchor
And goes ploughin' out to sea.
When the hurricane's a-blowin'
From the Banks to old Cape Cod,
Oh, the Cutter, with her searchlight,
Seems the messenger of God.

She's a saver, no destroyer,
And the populace don't rave
'Bout the ship not built for killin',
Which is simply built to save,
But the wives of men she's rescued -
You can take it from me, Boy,
That those women bless the Cutter,
And the women mostly know.

No, she's got no big twelve-inchers,
And she doesn't sweep the seas,
But the wind that scares the Dreadnaught
To the Cutter is a breeze.
She goes thumpin' and a-bumpin'
When the water is a hell.
Savin' Ships. Here's to you, Cutter,
For we like you - - Well!

                                 (EWM,Sr)