II

The sun was lost in a leaden sky,

And the shore lay under our lee;

When a great Sou’ Wester hurricane high

Came rollicking up the sea.

He played with the fleet as a boy with boats

Till out for the Downs we ran,

And he laugh'd with the roar of a thousand throats

At the militant ways of man:

Oh! I am the enemy most of might,

The other be who you please!

Gunner and guns may all be right,

Flags a-flying and armour tight,

But I am the fellow you've first to fight —

The giant that swings the seas.

A dozen of middies were down below

Chasing the X they love,

While the table curtseyed long and slow

And the lamps were giddy above.

The lesson was all of a ship and a shot,

And some of it may have been true,

But the word they heard and never forgot

Was the word of the wind that blew:

Oh! I am the enemy most of might,

The other be who you please!

Gunner and guns may all be right,

Flags a-flying and armour tight,

But I am the fellow you've first to fight —

The giant that swings the seas.

The Middy with luck is a Captain soon,

With luck he may hear one day

His own big guns a-humming the tune

“‘ Twas in Trafalgar's Bay.”

But wherever he goes, with friends or foes,

And whatever may there befall,

He'll hear for ever a voice he knows

For ever defying them all:

Oh! I am the enemy most of might,

The other be who you please!

Gunner and guns may all be right,

Flags a-flying and armour tight,

But I am the fellow you've first to fight —

The giant that swings the seas.