Here's some more unabashed nauttical nostalgia from Burt Franklin Jenness:

From SEA LANES, edited by Burt Franklin Jenness,
The Cornhill Publishing Co., Boston, US, © 1921, pp. 77-78

The Old Ditty Box

Old and battered now, it rests
With the spinning wheel and chests,
In the solitude and gloom
Of the dusty attic room;
Tied around with cotton line;
Carved with names in odd design;
Hinges broken; lid askew;
Warped and cracked – but always new!
Dear to me despite its knocks –
Precious durned old ditty box.

When I steal away up stairs,
'Mong the beds and broken chairs,
And I loosen that old lid,
I'm a second Captain Kidd
Hunting for his buried gold –
But no hiding place could hold
Treasures like the ones I find,
And the thoughts they bring to mind;
Dreams of ships and ports and docks –
All from that old ditty box.

When I take the treasures out,
And begin to think about
Cruising days of long ago,
Memories crowd upon me so,
I just wish that every lad
Could have all the fun I've had,
And that they could have, like me,
Golden hours of memory,
When their thoughts, like sheep in flocks,
Would come from a ditty box.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble