THE MERCHANT NAVY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 89, 10 August 1942, Page 2

THE MERCHANT NAVY

(J. 11. .Moody) Tlicy sailed the seven seas. Their decks awash with foam. With all the ringing blown to hell Ten thousand miles from home. They stoked the gurgling boilers With their faces grimed with black, To Frisco town from London, Then homeward bound and back. They swept up mines with trawlers With a jigg-saw paravane On a stretching rope between two boats Sagging in the 1 strain. In convoys thick they've travelled ; 'Weighted down with food To feed the starving millions Of England's mighty brood. Munitions too they've carried ; And planes, and tanks and guns To keen the crews and .gunboats too Supplied to kill the Huns. In valour they arc not wanting The Merchant Navy's crew; Battered and torn and bleeding As they sail the mighty blue. With aircraft guns they take a turn And with pom poms blaze away, To protcet their xliips sometimes mere skiffs — Till England wins the day. They run the llaming gauntlet Giant clouds of smoke between, While 1 overhead the bombers— Below, the submarine. They have sailed the Seven Seas Their decks awash with foam With all the rigging blown to hell Ten thousand miles from home. They've sailed the Seven Seas For England, heme and you And they will sail the Seven Seas Till England does win through.