Farewell and adieu to you fine Spanish ladies..
farewell and adieu to you ladies of Spain...
for we've received orders to sail for old Scotia..
and perhaps we will never more see you again..

...........
............

Jack Tar
......


She was a Rose upon a salty sea,
she fell in luve...
she fell in luve
wi’ only me....

I was a tar in the Kynge’s own navy
a rig top lad wi’ a jaunty smile
and I met that lass in a backroom frolic
and her willingness did me beguile..

An’ I sailed wi’ her in the sea o’ passion
drown’d in her stormy tempest wyld
she was my port when when I felt scuppered
warm within her harbour’s smile...

But war aroused the demon plague
and I shipped out on that fateful morn
bound to fight Napoleon’s seamen,
left that lass sad and forlorn...
...........
...........

Trim the tops'ls I..
see the lad fall from the rigging
barefoot in his fall
squelching the deck wi’ his brains..
listing to starboard
and choked
by gunners firing frenzy..
below decks
planks stream
with shattered gore..
Midshipman young and
horrorstruck
he whimpers and pisses orders
whilst the madness
obliterates
his child screams..

T’gallant wrecked and useless
no sense can I make o’ it..
grab a sharpened
sabre
wait for the scrape o’ deck on deck
“England” the cry
an’ we up an’ at ‘em
slicing soft parts
until entrails be
the colours o’ the day
hack an’ stab..
lofty ratlines filled wi’
firing Marines
spraying men wi’ leadshot
lethal
slippery underfoot
the Frenchies maindeck
naught much resistance
left..
dropping cutlass in
surrender only
makes him easier for
the dispatching..
no prisoners to be taken
was the order of the day...
splattered and soaked I am
an’ war wearie
and without a tear
for the corpses tossed
in uncaring abandon
‘midst British cheers
from the decks
o’ this beaten Man O’ War ...

I went to war young and strong ...
I’m now old and useless
and I often dream of a Rose
upon a salty sea...

Graham...April...2004