Here's another poem by Bill Adams:

From FENCELESS MEADOWS: Tales of the Sea , edited by Bill Adams, published by Frederick A. Stokes & Co., © 1921, pp. 102-103. Republished in SONGS OF THE SEA AND SAILORS' CHANTEYS, edited by Robert Frothingham, published by Houghton Mifflin Co., Cambridge, US, © 1924, pp. 2-4. Also republished in WIND IN THE TOPSAILS, edited by Bill Adams, published by George G. Harrap & Co., London, UK, © 1931, pp. 141-142.

Stowaway

I crossed the gangway in the winter's raining,
Late in the night, when it was dreary dark;
The only sounds the rain's hiss, and the complaining
Of mooring hawsers holding that lean barque.

She sailed before the dawn, the evening found me
A sea-sick nipper hidden in spare sails.
I feared they'd drag me out and maybe drown me, –
The barque was trembling, dipping both her rails.

Soon I crept forth. Her long, lee rail was sweeping.
A homing ship drove by with hurrying feet,
A school of porpoises all 'round her leaping,
While stars dipped low, her dizzied spars to greet.

"Three cheers!" they cried, and I could hear their voices,
And the sharp beating of her clanged iron bells;
Her music faded, merged in the sea noises,
And she was gone, loud cheering down the swells.

And in me then a something seemed to waken,
And I was 'mazed. It was as though the sea,
Or the big topsails by the night-wind shaken,
Had cast a sort of magic over me.

The mast-heads reeled. In the bright north the Dipper
Hung dazzling diamonds 'round her sails, ghost white.
The seas were dim, and the deep-breathing clipper
Quivered her feet, and shook with sheer delight.

It's long ago, my first night on the sea,
And I've grown old, and sailing days are sped.
And I am waiting, waiting patiently,
Till other topsails gleam above my head.

There'll be a wharf, I know, where I am going,
There'll be a gangway for the likes o' me;
There'll be some lofty packet seaward going, –
They'll be fine ships on that eternal sea!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble