My Old Ships.

[Captain Kong]

My old Ships.

When old ships I used to know come back from the sea
they are laden with a cargo, full of messages for me.
And they bring men I used to know, grown older by the years
to chat about the old days and lift a glass that cheers.

When old ships I used to know drop anchor by the shore
with a salty, smoky funnel and a pennant at the fore
Red rust on the bowplate and decks that smell of brine,
I know them as the old ships that will ever more be mine.

When old ships come back again they tell of an Empires`s fame
or a Consul`s office out abroad where I sometimes signed my name.
To work my passage, broke and bent, a heart like a lump of lead,
till "Queer Street" changed to "Promised Land" on sighting Beachy Head.

In old ships I used to know I`d lean on the rail at night
and follow the lay of the Southern Cross, from the Line to the Aussie Bight.
I`d count the days from Calleo, to the Horn and the Flortida Keys
with the Great Bear as a pilot through the North Atlantic Seas.

The old ships I used to know from Penang to the Golden Gate
they wrap their arms around me and whisper a sailing date
and I`m out on the run to Rio, and back with a concience clear
on every course of the compass the `Old Man` chose to steer.

The old ships, they give me joy, but bring me something more,
they bring Cape Town and Freemantle right up to my front door.
When I sit by a cosy fireside and the wind howls through the trees,
there`s a call that veers to the harbour piers, the call of the open seas.

by Sydney Brand, in `Sea Breezes` August 1950

[Doc Vernon]

Hi Capt
What a lovely Poem that is,thank you for that!
Cheers