Here's another take on fitting this poem to a tune, this time to the traditional sea song "Rolling Home":

Poem by C. Fox Smith, SEA SONGS & BALLADS 1917-22, pp. 96-97, © 1924
Adapted for singing by Charles Ipcar, 8/25/2004
Tune: after traditional "Rolling Home"

Pacific Coast-2


Half across the world to westward, there's a harbour that I know,
Where the ships that load with lumber, and those China liners go;
Where the wind blows cold and gusty, off the snow-crowned peaks that gleam,
Out across the Straits at twilight, like the landfall of a dream.

Chorus:

There's a harbour that I know,
There's a harbour that I know,
Half across the world from England,
There's a harbour that I know.

And I daresay if I went there, I'd find it all the same,
Still the same old sunset glory, setting all the clouds aflame,
Still the smell of burning forests, on the quiet evening air,
Little things my heart remembers, nowhere else on earth but there. (CHO)

Still the harbour gulls a-calling, calling night and day,
And the wind across the water, singing just the same old way,
As it did among the rigging, of a ship I used to know,
Half across the world from England, now so many years ago. (CHO)

She is gone beyond my finding, gone forever, ship and man,
Far beyond that scarlet sunset, flaming down behind Japan;
But perhaps I'll find the dream there, that I lost so long ago,
Half across the world to westward, in a harbour that I know...(CHO)

It seems to work as well as "Mandalay" and maybe it's better not to confuse the two tunes, although they do share a line or two in common.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble