| Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). Verse: 1885–1918. 1922. | | | | The Lowestoft Boat |
| | (East Coast Patrols)
1914–18
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! | 5 |
| |
| 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, | 10 |
| 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, | 15 |
| 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. | 20 |
| |
| 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’, | 25 |
| The Lord knows where! | | | | |
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