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20 AMERICAN SEA SONGS.
His heart filled with anything but fears ;
And squirting out his quid,
As he saw the captain did, He cleaned out his mouth for three cheers.
Another song on the same engagement, entitled Halifax Station, begins thus: —
From Halifax Station a bully there came,
To take or be taken, called Dacres by name ;
And who but a Yankee he met on his way ;
Says the Yankee to him, " Will you stop and take tea ? "
After giving Dacres's high and mighty address to his crew, and Hull's more modest appeal, it says: —
Then we off with our hats and gave him a cheer,
Swore we 'd stick by brave Hull, while a seaman could
steer. Then at it we went with a mutual delight, For to fight and to conquer is a seaman's free right.
The poet naturally takes the privilege of presenting the confounded Britisher in the most humiliating light, and the manner in which Captain Dacres signified his surrender is probably more graphic than historically correct: —
Then Dacres looked wild, and then sheathed his sword, When he found that his masts had all gone by the board. And, dropping astern, cries out to his steward, " Come up and be d------d ! Fire a gun to leeward ! "
This battle, fought in the North Atlantic on August |
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