Start Point and Beachy Head
Tell their tale of quick and dead.
Forelands both and Dungeness
See many a ship in distress.
The Lizard and the Longships know
Oft the end of friend or foe.
And many and many a seaman's knell
Has been rung by Manacles bell.
Gull and Dodman ask aright
A wide berth on a dirty night.
Bolt Head and Bolt Tail
Are ill spots in a Channel gale.
Over nigh to Portland Bill
In Channel fog it's just as ill.
And Wolf Rock and Seven Stones
Rest their feet on sailors' bones.
But from Nore Light to Cape Cornwall
Goodwin Sands are worst of all!
Notes
From SEA SONGS AND BALLADS 1917-22, edited by Cicely Fox Smith, published by Houghton Mifflin Co., New York, US, © 1924, p. 118. Earlier published by Hodder & Stoughton, © 1919, in RHYMES OF THE RED ENSIGN, p. 63.
This is an interesting list of some of the main navigational danger points for ships in the English Channel.
Charley Noble & Jim Saville
Adding your comment:
