The trigger maru

[Captain Kong]

Here are a couple of poems I like. 1st the Trigger Maru, written by a crew member just before they sailed on their last mission, they never returned. On my last cruise this year I sailed with a very old Veteran of the US Submarine Service in WW2, he was in a wheel chair. and he had sailed on the USS Trigger, I told him this poem and he wept.
.
I'M THE GALLOPING GHOST OF THE JAPANESE COAST
You don't hear of me and my crew.
But just ask any man off the coast of Japan
If he knows of the Trigger Maru.

I look sleek and slender alongside my tender
With others like me at my side,
But we'll tell you a story of battle and glory,
As enemy waters we ride.

I've been stuck on a rock, felt the depth charge's shock,
Been north to a place called Attu,
and I've sunk me two freighters atop the equator
Hot work, but the sea was cold blue.

I've cruised close inshore and carried the war
to the Empire Island Honshu,
While they wire Yokahama I could see Fujiyama,
So I stayed, to admire the view.

When we rigged to run silently, deeply I dived,
And within me the heat was terrific.
My men pouring sweat, silent and yet
Cursed me and the whole damned Pacific.

Then destroyers came sounding and depth charges pounding
My submarine crew took the test.
Far in that far off land there are no friends on hand,
To answer a call of distress.

I was blasted and shaken (some damage I've taken),
my hull bleeds and pipe lines do, too
I've come in from out there for machinery repair,
And a rest for me and my crew.

I got by on cool nerve and in silence I served,
Though I took some hard knocks in return,
One propeller shaft sprung and my battery's done,
But the enemy ships I saw burn.

I'm the galloping ghost of the Japanese coast,
You don't hear of me and my crew.
But just ask any man off the coast of Japan,
If he knows of the Trigger Maru.

USS Trigger was lost with all hands during her twelfth patrol, on March 26, 1945.
.
.
my other favourite poem is..........
.
FIDDLERS GREEN
As I roved by the dockside one evening so fair
To view the salt waters and take in the salt air
I heard an old sailorman singing a song
"Oh take me away boys me time is not long

Wrap me up in me oilskin and blankets
No more on the docks I'll be seen
Just tell me old shipmates, I'm taking a trip mates
And I'll see you someday on Fiddlers Green

Now Fiddlers Green is a place I've heard tell
Where sailormen go if they don't go to hell
Where the weather is fair and the dolphin do play
And the cold coast of Greenland is far,far away

Now when you're in dock and the long trip is through
There's pubs and there's clubs and there's fair lassies too
And the girls are all pretty and the beer is all free
And there's bottles of rum growing on every tree

Where the skies are all clear and there's never a gale
And the fish jump aboard with a swish of the tail
Where you lie at your leisure there's no work to do
And the skippers below making tea for the crew

Wrap me up in me oilskin and blankets
No more on the docks I'll be seen
Just tell me old shipmates, I'm taking a trip mates
I'll see you again on Fiddlers Green

Now I don’t want a harp nor a halo, not me
Just give me a breeze and a good rolling sea
I'll play me old squeeze box as we sail along
With the wind in the rigging to sing me a song.
And I'll see you again on Fiddlers Green..................".


Wrap me up in me oilskin and blankets
No more on the docks I'll be seen
Just tell me old shipmates, I'm taking a trip mates
And I'll see you someday on Fiddlers Green
.
Dont know who wrote this one.
Cheers
Brian

[Keith at Tregenna]

Gently rocked by the tide,
Cradled in the arms of the sea
Shipmates always,
Remembered with pride.
Forever at peace with the sea.

Tony Meade, 1997