CAPTAIN KNOWLES OF THE NORTHFLEET.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 179, 26 July 1873, Page 4

CAPTAIN KNOWLES OF THE NORTHFLEET.

BY GERALD M ASSET. I So often is the proud deed done. By men like this at duty's call ; So many are the honours won By them, we cannot wear them all ! They make the heroic commonplace, And dying thus the natural way ; Yet is our world-wide English race Ennobled by that deatli, To-day 1 It brings the thoughts thit fathom things, To anchor fast where billows roll ; It stirs us with t* sense of wings That stride to lift the earthiest soul. Love was so new, and life so sweet, But at the call he left ihe wine And sprang full-statured to his feet, Responsive to the touch divine. "N y dear, I cannot see you die, For me, I hane my work to do Up here. Down to the boat Good bye, God bless you 1 1 shall see it through." We read, until the vision dims And drowns ; but, ere the pang be past, A tide of triumph overbrims And breaks with light from heaven at last. Through all the blackness of the night A glory streams from out the gloom ; His Btedfaßt spirit holds the light That shines till Night is overcome. The sea will do its worst, and life Be sobbed out in a bubbling breath; But firmly in the coward strife There stands a Man who hath vanquisht Death! A soul that conquers wind and wave, And towers above a sinking deck; A bridge across the gaping grave; A rainbow rising o'er the wreck. He saved others— saved the name Unsullied that he gave his wife; Ami, dying with so pure an aim, He had no need to save his life. Lord ! how they shame the life we live— These snilors of our sea-girt isle, Who chferily take what 1 hou maysfc give, And go down with a heavenward smile ! The men who sow their lives to yield A gloriom crop in lives to be; Who turn to 1-njjlani'B harvest-field The unfruitful luriows of the sea. With such a breed of men so brave, The < )ld Land has not had her day; But long her strength, with crested wave, Shall ride the teas the proud old way !