The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sea Warfare, by Rudyard Kipling

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Title: Sea Warfare

Author: Rudyard Kipling

Release Date: February 6, 2006 [EBook #17689]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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SEA WARFARE

BY

RUDYARD KIPLING

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1916

CONTENTS

PAGE

THE FRINGES OF THE FLEET 1

TALES OF "THE TRADE" 93

DESTROYERS AT JUTLAND 145

THE FRINGES OF THE FLEET

(1915)

In Lowestoft a boat was laid,
Mark well what I do say!
And she was built for the herring trade,
But she has gone a-rovin', a-rovin', a-rovin',
The Lord knows where!

They gave her Government coal to burn,
And a Q.F. gun at bow and stern,
And sent her out a-rovin', etc.

Her skipper was mate of a bucko ship
Which always killed one man per trip,
So he is used to rovin', etc.

Her mate was skipper of a chapel in Wales,
And so he fights in topper and tails--
Religi-ous tho' rovin', etc.

Her engineer is fifty-eight,
So he's prepared to meet his fate,
Which ain't unlikely rovin', etc.

Her leading-stoker's seventeen,
So he don't know what the Judgments mean,
Unless he cops 'em rovin', etc.

Her cook was chef in the Lost Dogs' Home,
Mark well what I do say!
And I'm sorry for Fritz when they all come
A-rovin', a-rovin', a-roarin' and a-rovin',
Round the North Sea rovin',
The Lord knows where!

THE AUXILIARIES

I

The Navy is very old and very wise. Much of her wisdom is on record
and available for reference; but more of it works in the unconscious
blood of those who serve her. She has a thousand years of experience,
and can find precedent or parallel for any situation that the force of
the weather or the malice of th