A capital ship for an ocean trip, <br />Was the 'Walloping Window-blind'; <br />No gale that blew dismayed her crew <br />Or troubled the captain's mind. <br />The man at the wheel was taught to feel <br />Contempt for the wildest blow, <br />And it often appeared, when the weather had cleared, <br />That he'd been in his bunk below. <br /> <br />'The boatswain's mate was very sedate, <br />Yet fond of amusement, too; <br />And he played hop-scotch with the starboard watch, <br />While the captain tickled the crew. <br />And the gunner we had was apparently mad, <br />For he sat on the after rail, <br />And fired salutes with the captain's boots, <br />In the teeth of the booming gale. <br /> <br />'The captain sat in a commodore's hat <br />And dined in a royal way <br />On toasted pigs and pickles and figs <br />And gummery bread each day. <br />But the cook was Dutch and behaved as such; <br />For the diet he gave the crew <br />Was a number of tons of hot-cross buns <br />Prepared with sugar and glue. <br /> <br />'All nautical pride we laid aside, <br />And we cast the vessel ashore <br />On the Gulliby Isles, where the Poohpooh smiles, <br />And the Rumbletumbunders roar. <br />And we sat on the edge of a sandy ledge <br />And shot at the whistling bee; <br />And the cinnamon-bats wore water-proof hats <br />As they danced in the sounding sea. <br /> <br />'On rubgub bark, from dawn to dark, <br />We fed, till we all had grown <br />Uncommonly shrunk,—when a Chinese junk <br />Came by from the torriby zone. <br />She was stubby and square, but we didn't much care, <br />And we cheerily put to sea; <br />And we left the crew of the junk to chew <br />The bark of the rubgub tree.'<br /><br />Charles Edward Carryl<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-nautical-ballad/
