They are fighters, but they're not the hero kind;
They are just a gang of grimy sailormen.
They're the knights of crank and lever,
They're the stoker, and the heaver;
In their little hell-hot, iron furnace den.
There's no glamour of brave deeds for them, on deck;
They are not the men who serve us at the guns.
They're the tender, and the oiler,
They're the watchman, and the toiler;
They're the nation's grubbing, sweating, plodding ones.
They're the sinew, and the brawn of fighting craft;
They are everything that goes to make up men.
But in the stoke-holes of our cruisers,
They are generally the losers,
When the hero stuff is dripping from the pen.
Not a patch of daylight cheers their realm below;
Not a ray of sunshine ever filters through;
By the furnaces, agleam,
Toil these master men of steam
To the music of the racing, throbbing screw.
They are not the men to choose how they shall die;
They're the servants of the throttle, and the gauge;
Twenty feet below the hatches,
They are not the kind that matches
In a throw with death, to see who pays the wage.
So while the guns of war are thundering fore and aft,
And you're shouting praise of men who fight for you,
Think of those who do their bit
In a seething furnace pit —
They're the heroes in the fire-room crew!
Notes
From MAN-O'-WAR RHYMES, edited by Burt Franklin Jenness, originally published by The Cornhill Publishing Co., Boston, US, © 1918, pp. 5-6; available as a new paperback reprint from Kessinger Publishing.
Here's an unusual poem dedicated to the man-o' war's crew who work below. I'm hearing a tune for this in my head, some variant of "I Was Born Ten Thousand Years Ago." I bet Cyrill Tawny would have loved this one!
Charley Noble
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-
The Fire Room Crew
Neil-
Wouldn't it be great to sing this one to some retired Fire Room Crew members at one of their conventions.
Charley Noble -
"The Fire Room Crew"
From guest Neil E. Downey (contact)
These were the ones referred to as "snipes", who wore undress blues and sweated bullets down below. They were a special breed of men who were essential to the operation of any vessel and contingent on success in battle. And yes, they were unsung. This is a fitting tribute to "the black gang"referred to in many a story shared at the bar of a V.F.W. or Legion Hall.
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