David Lewis Paget writes

The Black Freighter

The Cormorant was the darkest ship, 

As dark as a ship could be, 

Not only the paint was pitted black 

From the funnels to the sea, 

But deep inside in its rusted gloom 

In the echoes from its shell, 

It was like a monster roamed abroad 

Released from the depths of hell.

It roared and echoed by day and night 

As the boilers turned the screw, 

Lurching across every wave that might 

Try to break its hull in two, 

It was laden down with a thousand tons 

Of a cargo that made it groan, 

While breakers slapped its quivering sides 

As it made its way back home.

The Captain stood on the shuddering bridge, 

A man with a heart of steel, 

He tried to control this raging beast 

As he lashed himself to the wheel, 

He gave no quarter to any man 

Who would shirk, avoid his task, 

But called the crew to witness his due 

As the man was soundly lashed.

Down in the depths of the engine room 

The firemen shovelled coal, 

Each shovel sprayed like a black dismay 

In the light of that glowing hole, 

And steam built up on the pressure gauge 

Of each boiler, one and two, 

As men would fret, while running in sweat, 

To do what they had to do.

The seas built up and the rain came down 

As the Cormorant rolled and swayed, 

Then lightning flashed and it ran to ground 

Like an imp in a masquerade, 

It left three dead on the afterdeck, 

They hurried to help them there, 

But the captain roared, ‘Throw them overboard, 

We’ve more than enough to spare.’

A mutter grew up among the crew 

As dark as the bosun’s hat, 

I never knew what the crew would do 

So I wasn’t in on that. 

But the Captain disappeared from the bridge 

And the wheel was swinging free, 

With the Cormorant broadside to the waves 

At mercy of wind and sea.

They said it must be a miracle 

When we finally entered port, 

The bilge half full of water, they said, 

And the Captain fell overboard. 

But the ship was done, had made its last run 

As the fires went out in the hull, 

Then raking through the mountain of ash 

I found the late Captain’s skull.

 

 The Black Freighter -- Raoul Dufy