Mudcat Café message #1693072

The Mudcat Café ^TM
Thread #89676 Message #1693072
Posted By: Abby Sale
14-Mar-06 - 09:01 AM
Thread Name: happy? - Mar 14 (Byng shot / Whale lost)
Subject: happy? - Mar 14 (Byng shot / Whale lost)

3/14/1757: Admiral John Byng was executed by firing squad for losing Minorca to the French.


          By conduct contrary a captain we lost,
          And here lies the reason, he run from his post,
          For may we not say it, without flounce [decoration] or fear,
          He run from his post, when he run in too near.
  
          "An Address from the Regions Below to A-----l B—-g,"
          in A Ballad History of England, Roy Palmer
  
  
  ALSO:   "Admiral Byng," Oxford Book of Sea Songs, Roy Palmer 
  
  ALSO:
          In eighteen hundred and forty-six
          On March the fourteenth day,
          I bought myself a calendar
          For we were bound away.
          We sailed from tacky guano
          And followed the seabird's flight,
          For we were hunting whales, me boys,
          At least we thought we might.
  
                  "The Losing of the Whale" by & © D. Nudds and C. Sugden. From the Kipper Family The Ever Decreasing Circle & DigTrad filename[ LOSEWHAL