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AMERICAN SEA SONGS. 15 |
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the very crew of the Ranger, Paul Jones's ship, which escaped from a British squadron in the Irish Channel in 1778. It was first published by Commodore Luce, in his collection of Naval Songs, with the statement that it was taken down from the recitation of a sailor. It is one of the gems of forecastle song, has the full scent of the brine and the gale, and the ship does not manoeuvre as if she were a wagon on dry land, as was said of Allan Cunningham's account of Paul Jones's cruises. The title
given is
THE YANKEE MAN-OF-WAR.
'T is of a gallant Yankee ship that flew the stripes and stars, And the whistling wind from the west-nor'-west blew through
the pitch-pine spars. With her starboard tacks aboard, my boys, she hung upon the
gale, On an autumn night we raised the light on the old head of
Kinsale.
It was a clear and cloudless night, and the wind blew steady and strong,
As gayly over the sparkling deep our good ship bowled along ;
With the foaming seas beneath her bow the fiery waves she spread,
And bending low her bosom of snow, she buried her lee cathead.
There was no talk of short'ning sail by him who walked the poop, |
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