Of all the docks upon the blue <br />There was no dockyard, old or new, <br />To touch the dock at Cockatoo. <br /> <br />Of all the ministerial clan <br />There was no nicer, worthier man <br />Than Admiral O'Sullivan. <br /> <br />Of course, we mean E. W. <br />O'Sullivan, the hero who <br />Controlled the dock at Cockatoo. <br /> <br />To workmen he explained his views -- <br />"You need not toil unless you choose, <br />Your only work is drawing screws." <br /> <br />And sometimes to their great surprise <br />When votes of censure filled the skies <br />He used to give them all a rise. <br /> <br />"What odds about a pound or two?" <br />Exclaimed the great E. W. <br />O'Sullivan at Cockatoo. <br /> <br />The dockyard superintendent, he <br />Was not at all what he should be -- <br />He sneered at all this sympathy. <br /> <br />So when he gave a man the sack <br />O'Sullivan got on his track <br />And straightway went and fetched him back. <br /> <br />And with a sympathetic tear <br />He'd say, "How dare you interfere, <br />You most misguided engineer? <br /> <br />"Your sordid manners please amend -- <br />No man can possibly offend <br />Who has a Member for a friend. <br /> <br />"With euchre, or a friendly rub, <br />And whisky, from the nearest 'pub', <br />We'll make the dockyard like a club. <br /> <br />"Heave ho, my hearties, play away, <br />We'll do no weary work today. <br />What odds -- the public has to pay! <br /> <br />"And if the public should complain <br />I'll go to Broken Hill by train <br />To watch McCarthy making rain." <br /> <br />And there, with nothing else to do <br />No doubt the great E. W. <br />Will straightway raise McCarthy's screw.<br /><br />Andrew Barton Paterson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-ballad-of-cockatoo-dock/
