Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). Verse: 1885–1918. 1922.

The North Sea Patrol

1914–18

WHERE the East wind is brewed fresh and fresh every morning,

And the balmy night-breezes blow straight from the Pole,

I heard a Destroyer sing: “What an enjoyable life does one lead on the North Sea Patrol!

“To blow things to bits is our business (and Fritz’s),

Which means there are mine-fields wherever you stroll.

Unless you’ve particular wish to die quick, you’ll a-

void steering close to the North Sea Patrol.

“We warn from disaster the mercantile master

Who takes in high Dudgeon our life-saving rôle,

For every one’s grousing at Docking and Dowsing

The marks and the lights on the North Sea Patrol.”

[Twelve verses omitted.]

So swept but surviving, half drowned but still driving,

I watched her head out through the swell off the shoal,

And I heard her propellers roar: “Write to poor fellers

Who run such a Hell as the North Sea Patrol!”