A Risso dolphin called Pelorus Jack, <br />Developed a life saving knack, <br />Helping ships to navigate, <br />In eighteen eighty-eight, <br />After a captain's wife, <br />Saved his life, <br />From a foolish harpooner, <br />On Brindle Schooner. <br /> <br />He decided to steer <br />Countless ships as a career. <br />For twenty-five years, <br />He took away sailor's fears, <br />Helping them through French pass, <br />Where many had died alas. <br />Riding on each vessels' bow wave, <br />Boundless joy he gave. <br /> <br />He leapt to entertain, <br />The famous Mark Twain. <br />Rudyard Kipling made an odd remark, <br />Calling him a 'big white-marked shark'. <br />Sailors would celebrate, <br />When he met them in Cook Strait. <br /> <br />One day a horrible man on the SS Penguin, <br />Tried to kill him with a weapon. <br />He refused to steer their flank, <br />And shortly after the Penguin sank. <br />Thankfully, harming Jack was banned, <br />By the good people of New Zealand. <br /> <br />His painting by Cecil King, <br />Made the world sing, <br />On the cover of Illustrated London News, <br />With stories from countless crews. <br />Edmund Lindop wrote of his tales, <br />A guardian to so many sails, <br />Sent by Tangaroa the ocean god, <br />He saw us as part of his pod. <br /> <br />This hero so legendary, <br />Kept alive by the Cook Strait ferry, <br />With his picture as their motif, <br />Guiding sailors through the reef. <br />Without his amazing ultrasound, <br />Many would have drowned. <br />In Wellington a statue is engraved, <br />In memory of those he saved. <br /> <br />Oh wonderful Pelorus Jack, <br />I wish you'd come back!<br /><br />Stephen Katona<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/pelorus-jack-and-his-knack/
