The Laws of the Navy

IT may be a mariner's fancy that threatens a ship with the worst

Whose name has been changed, like the Dainty that was the Repentance at first,

A marvel of maritime beauty suggesting the faultlessly bred,

So perfect indeed that Her Majesty came

To view her, and nothing misliked but her name

So bade Richard Hawkins abolish the same

And christen her Dainty instead.

But hear Richard Hawkins, his voyage, who sailed on discovery bent,

To pass by the Strait of Magellan, exploring wherever he went,

To China, Japan and the Indies, portraying the wonders he found,

"Complete" as a seaman and ready to go

Wherever adventure awaited, and so

The Dainty made sail and was cheered from the Hoe,

But—she never returned to the Sound.

By scurvy assailed in the tropics which woefully minished her crew,

Eight months to the Strait of Magellan and nearly two more winning thro',

By rock and by tempest assaulted, misfortune seemed never to end

But nothing could put Richard Hawkins to rout

For none of his company ventured to doubt

That he had the secret of sticking it out,

Their great-hearted Captain and friend.

Cape Pillar was passed and, rejoicing, the Dainty sped up to the north

Where, bent on disputing her passage, Don Beltran de Castro came forth

And once did she slip from his clutches and thought that her perils were past

But five of his ships were made ready anew

With hundreds of men, of the pick of Peru,

To Cape San Francisco they presently drew

And cornered the Dainty at last!

Three days and two nights she withstood them, for Grenville's example was plain,

Outgunned and outmanned and outnumbered, she was battered again and again.

With nothing save honour unbroken, they towed her dismasted remains

To the Port of Perico and hauled them on shore

And hotly though Beltran protested and swore

They lodged Richard Hawkins for six years and more

In a dungeon in Seville in chains.

Nine years from the time of her sailing the Dainty's commander came home,

To kneel to King James for his knighthood, and write, for the seamen to come,

The story of what had befallen, with never a plaint or a sigh,

But mariners' counsel which mariners say

Is worthy all reverence even to-day

For it breathes a contentment to suffer if they

Who follow might prosper thereby.