I must go down to the sea again.
Poem by Barrie Youde, Ship Nostalgia 9.10.2015
I must go down to the sea again,
to see who is where, doing what?
Whose youthful ambition won Master’s position?
And otherwise those who did not?
Did no-one else count, in the slightest amount, except for the man with four stripes?
Are the rest of us fools? A disgrace to our schools?
Condemned to a lifetime of swipes?
I must go down to the sea again.
The Master, yes, I will salute him,
The son-of-a-gun his position has won; and no man on board can refute him.
But what of his ship? And what of his trip? A heap? Or an elegant liner?
Or a lucrative trade where a fortune is made? Who is richer? Or poorer? Or finer?
I must go down to the sea again, where mostly I met honest men,
Who stood on their feet in an honourable fleet; in magnitude, as it was then.
Where each played his part, from a variable start, and did so for better or worse;
Took the smooth with the rough, the fine and the bluff,
with barely a chance to rehearse.
I must go down to the sea again. The leaves are beginning to turn.
The seasons roll on and the summer is gone: and still there’s a living to earn,
For those with the will and the guts and the skill and the courage to see it all through,
Where men still enjoy things they dreamed as a boy; remembering once I did, too.
I must go down to the sea again. It taught me all things that I know,
In my youth and my prime in that long ago time. I cannot today let it go.
There is work to be done and a goal to be won in the interests of those still at sea,
As I throw in my lot, it is all that I’ve got of the privilege granted to me.