THE ANCHOR WATCH
by Cicely Fox Smith (1919)

O shipmates all, as you lay sleeping
(Blow, boys, blow!)
Across the world the day came creeping
(Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!)
With a cold wet wind the shrouds were shaking,
And in all the port was no one waking,
In the morning watch and the grey dawn breaking
(Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!)

I saw a ship come down the river
(Blow, boys, blow!)
In the morning light her sails did shiver
(Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!)
I saw the sun on her royals gleaming
And her gilded trucks in the dawn a-gleaming,
And the bubbled foam of her bow-wave streaming —
(Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!)

I heard the gulls all round her calling
(Blow, boys, blow!)
I heard the watch on the braces hauling
(Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!)
I heard their voices over the water —
'O Shenandoah, I love your daughter' —
And the dash o' the tide on her weather quarter
(Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!)

Then like a cloud she broke and lifted
(Blow, boys, blow!)
Her spars did melt, her sails they drifted
(Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!)
And all that I saw was a white mist flying,
All that I heard, the grey gulls crying,
And the tide's sob and the wind's sighing. . . .
And one far call out of dreams replying
(Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!)

Not sure if this has been set to music by others already, but here is my offering.

Cheers,

Daniel Kelly