Where is Henry Adams now, that planned the Agamemnon?
Sink him in his hammock, boys, he's gone far away!
Oak and iron and blood of her, his fair one, his darling,
Foundered in the River Plate, in Maldonaldos Bay.
Where are all the shipwrights now that built the Agamemnon?
Let them lie at rest, boys, under the green grass.
Saw and swinging riveters we'll never more be hearing
On Beaulieu's woodland waters where the Agamemnon was.
Where is Captain Nelson now, that sailed the Agamemnon?
Fought and beat the Spanish crews in Cape St. Vincent Bay —
Oak and iron blood of her, his fine one, his darling —
Sink him in his hammock, boys, he's gone far away!
Notes
From SAILOR WITH BANJO, by Hamish Maclaren, published by The MacMillian Co., NY, © 1930, pp. 20-21.
Maclaren added this note for this poem:
"In fact having been recently promoted commodore, Nelson was flying his pennant on board the Captain when for half an hour he took on single-handed half a Spanish armada. But it was, I believe, even then as the captain of the Agamemnon that he was best known, and, anyhow, I am certainly not going to wreck the old sailors' chorus for a trifling error like that."
Charley Noble
Adding your comment: