JUTLAND 1916
(Keith A of Hertford)
Tune Spanish Ladies.

On the last day of May out of Rosyth and Scapa,
Sailed the mightiest fleet that the world had yet known,
In columns and ranks to the grey Jutland banks
Under young Admiral Beatty and old Jellico.

In the deep magazines the mighty guns ordnance,
Those thousands of shells stacked ready for use,
And up through the bulkheads up hoists to the turrets,
The cordite propellant stretched out like a fuse.

Their sides stoutly armoured to fend off a broadside,
To fend off a broadside as in Nelson's day,
But at vast modern ranges a shell steeply plunges,
Finding only thin deckplates to stand in it's way.

At four in the evening Indefatigable exploded,
Her thousand man crew died at once in the burn,
At 4.25 twelve hundred more lives,
Were lost as Queen mary exploded in turn.

Arbuthnot's light cruisers wrecked the German, Weisbaden,
But he led them too close to the High Sea Fleet's Guns,
The Warrior, Defence and the Black Prince were shattered,
Arbuthnot was killed with two thousand more sons.

Brave Hood's battlecruisers then rejoined the battle,
Left Lutzow and Pillau to drift on the tide,
But turning away through the fountains of spray,
Brave Hood and all hands on Invincible died.

They burned and they drowned, those true British sailors,
They burned and they drowned on that last day of May.
Off Skaggerack shore, six thousand and more,
For there's something wrong with our poor ships today.