Frankie's trade

Old Horn to All Atlantic said:

(A-hay O! To me O!)

"Now where did Frankie learn his trade?

For he ran me down with a three-reef mains'I."

(All round the Horn!)

Atlantic answered:--"Not from me!

You'd better ask the cold North Sea,

For he ran me down under all plain canvas."

(All round the Horn!)

The North Sea answered: -- "He's my man,

For he came to me when he began--

Frankie Drake in an open coaster.

(All round the Sands!)

"I caught him young and I used him sore,

So you never shall startle Frankie more,

Without capsizing Earth and her waters.

(All round the Sands!)

"I did not favour him at all.

I made him pull and I made him haul--

And stand his trick with the common sailors.

(All round the Sands!)

"I froze him stiff and I fogged him blind,

And kicked him home with his road to find

By what he could see in a three-day snow-storm.

(All round the Sands!)

"I learned him his trade o' winter nights,

'Twixt Mardyk Fort and Dunkirk lights,

On a five-knot tide with the forts a-firing.

(All round the Sands!)

"Before his beard began to shoot,

I showed him the length of the Spaniard's foot--

And I reckon he clapped the boot on it later.

(All round the Sands!)

"If there's a risk which you can make,

That's worse than he was used to take

Nigh every week in the way of his business;

(All round the Sands!)

"If there's a trick that you can try,

Which he hasn't met in time gone by,

Not once or twice, but ten times over;

(All round the Sands!)

"If you can teach him aught that's new,

(A-hay O! To me O!)

I'll give you Bruges and Niewport too,

And the ten tall churches that stand between

Storm along, my gallant Captains!

(All round the Horn!)