The Diagonal Steam Trap By Crawford Howard

[gray_marian]

Now they built a big ship down in Harland's
She was made for to sell to the Turks -
And they called on the Yard's chief designer
To design all the engines and works.
Now finally the engines was ready
And they screwed in the very last part
An' yer man says 'Let's see how she runs, lads!
An' bejasus! the thing wouldn't start!
So they pushed and they worked an' they footered
An' the engineers' faces got red
The designer he stood lookin' stupid
An' scratchin' the back o' his head.
But while they were fiddlin' and workin'
Up danders oul' Jimmie Dalzell
He had worked twenty years in the 'Island'
And ten in the 'aircraft' as well.
So he pushed and he worked and he muttered
Till he got himself through to the front
And he has a good look roun' the engine
An' he gives a few mutters and grunts,
And then he looks up at the gaffer
An' says he 'Mr Smith, d'ye know?
They've left out the Diagonal Steam Trap!
How the hell d'ye think it could go?'
Now the engineer eyed the designer
The designer he looks at the 'hat'
And they whispered the one to the other
Diagonal Steam Trap? What's that?'
But the Gaffer, he wouldn't admit, like
To not knowin' what this was about,
So he says 'Right enough, we were stupid!
The Diagonal Steam Trap's left out!'
Now in the meantime oul' Jimmie had scarpered
Away down to throw in his boord
And the Gaffer comes up and says 'Jimmy!
D'ye think we could have a wee word.
Ye see that Diagonal Steam Trap?
I know it's left out - it's bad luck
But the engine shop's terrible busy
D'ye think ye could knock us one up?'
Now, oul' Jimmy was laughin' his scone off
He had made it all up for a gag
He'd seen what was stoppin' the engine -
The feed-pipe was blocked with a rag!
But he sticks the oul' hands in the pockets
An' he says 'Aye, I'll give yez a han'!
I'll knock yes one up in the mornin'
An' the whole bloody thing will be grand!'
So oul' Jim starts to work the next morning
To make what he called a Steam Trap,
An oul' box an' a few bits of tubing
An' a steam gauge stuck up on the top,
An' he welds it all on to the engine
And he says to the wonderin' mob
As long as that gauge is at zero
The Steam Trap is doin' its job!'
Then he pulls the rag outa the feed pipe
An' he gives the oul' engine a try
An' bejasus! she goes like the clappers
An' oul' Jimmy remarks 'That's her nye!'
Now the ship was the fastest seen ever
So they sent her away to the Turks
But they toul' them 'That Steam Trap's a secret!
We're the only ones knows how it works!
But the Turks they could not keep their mouths shut
An' soon the whole story got roun'
An' the Russians got quite interested...
Them boys has their ears to the groun'!
So they sent a spy dressed as a sailor
To take photies of Jimmy's Steam Trap
And they got them all back to the Kremlin
An' they stood round to look at the snaps.
Then the head spy says 'Mr Kosygin!
I'm damned if I see how that works!
So they sent him straight off to Siberia
An' they bought the whole ship from the Turks!
When they found the Steam Trap was a 'cod', like,
They couldn't admit they'd been had
So they built a big factory in Moscow
To start makin' Steam Traps like mad!
Then Kosygin rings up Mr Nixon
And he says 'Youse'uns thinks yez are great!
But wi' our big new Russian-made Steam Trap
Yez'll find that we've got yez all bate!'
Now oul' Nixon, he nearly went 'harpic'
So he thought he'd give Harland's a call
And he dialled the engine-shop number
And of course he got sweet [censored] all!
But at last the call came through to Jimmy
In the midst of a terrible hush,
'There's a call for you here, from the White House!'
Says oul' Jim, 'That's a shop in Portrush!'
There's a factory outside of Seattle
Where they're turnin' out Steam Traps like Hell
It employs twenty-five thousand workers
And the head of it... Jimmy Dalzell

[Louis the fly]

Great. Marian you must be very fast on the keyboard, it would have taken me all week to do that.

[robpage]

Having spent a lifetime in engineering , with designers and Project engineers , I cannot agree with that ode , there is just not a single Jimmy Dazzel , there are hundreds of the buggers

[j.sabourn]

Rob .. his real name was Jiminy Cricket, but he changed it for business reasons. JS

[alf corbyn]

i'm sure his real name was stanley hollaway. great stuff marian . look up stanley on google

[Keith at Tregenna]

Thank you Marian, excellent. Had come across similar years ago, so long I cannot remember if it was a tale or a poem. But, loved it. K.

[gray_marian]

# Louis, It was copy & paste!

#5 Alf, Very interesting reading about Stanley Holloway thank you, Crawford Howard appears to be a different chap all together. His other poems are just as funny set around Northern Ireland. If you wish I will send them by pm to you, as I recall you have fond memories of there!!!!

[Keith at Tregenna]

# Louis, It was copy & paste! #5 Alf, Very interesting reading about Stanley Holloway thank you, Crawford Howard appears to be a different chap all together. His other poems are just as funny set around Northern Ireland. If you wish I will send them by pm to you, as I recall you have fond memories of there!!!!

#6 Would love to receive the same. K.

[gray_marian]

#8 Winging it's way towards you Keith as I speak......enjoy

[Marian Gra]

Another one by Crawford

''THE ARAB ORANGE LODGE''

A loyal band of Orangemen from Ulster's lovely land,
They could not march upon the 12th - processions was all banned,
So they flew off till the Middle East this dreadful law to dodge
And they founded in Jerusalem the Arab Orange Lodge

Big Ali Bey who charmed the snakes he was the first recruit,
John James McKeag from Portglenone learned him till play the flute
And as the oul' Pied Piper was once followed by the rats
There followed Ali till the lodge ten snakes in bowler hats.

They made a martial picture as they marched along the shore.
It stirred the blood when Ali played, 'The fez my father wore'.
And Yussef Ben Mohammed hit the' lambeg' such a bash
It scared the living daylights from a Camel in a sash!

Now the movement spread both far and wide, there were lodges by the score.
The 'Jerusalem Purple Heroes' was the first of many more,
The 'Loyal Sons of Djeddah' and the 'Mecca Purple Star'
And the 'Rising Sons of Jericho' who came by motor car'.

The banners too were wonderful and some would make you smile
King Billy on his camel as he splashed across the Nile.
But the Tyre and Sidon Temperance had the best one of them all
For they had a lovely picture of Damascus Orange Hall!

The Apprentice boys of Amman marched beneath the blazing sun,
The Royal Black Preceptory were negroes every one.
And lodges came from Egypt, from the Abu Simbel Falls,
And they shouted, 'No Surrender!' and, 'We'll guard old Cairo's walls!'

But when the ban was lifted and the lodges marched at last
The Arabs all decided for till march right through Belfast
And they caused a lot of trouble before they got afloat,
For they could not get the camels on the Belfast-Heysham boat!

Now camels choked up Liverpool and camels blocked Stranaer
And the Sheik of Kuwait came along in his great big motor car,
But the 'Eastern Magic' L.O.L. they worked a crafty move.
They got on their magic carpets and flew into Aldergrove!

When they came to Castle Junction where once stood the wee Kiosk
They dug up Royal Avenue to build a flamin' mosque
And Devlin says to Gerry Fitt, 'I think we'd better go!
'There's half a million camels coming down from Sandy Row.'

The speeches at the 'field' that day were really something new,
For some were made in Arabic and some were in Hebrew,
But just as Colonel Nasser had got up to sing 'The Queen',
I woke up in my bed at home and found it was a dream!