Here she be:

LET HER GO!

(Poem by C. Fox Smith in SEA SONGS & BALLADS, ©1924, pp. 132-134
Recorded by Pinch o' Salt on SEA BOOT DUFF AND HAND SPIKE GRUEL CD, © 2000)

'Er keel was laid in Seventy-four,
(Let 'er go – let 'er go!)
They built 'er cheap, an' they scamped 'er sore,
'Er rivets was putty, 'er plates was poor,
An' then come in the Primsoll Line,
Or I wouldn't be singin' this song of mine.
(Let 'er go!)

She was cranky an' foul, she was stubborn an' slow…
An' she shipped it green when it come to blow;
'Er crews was starved, an' the pay was low,
An' 'er bloomin' owners was ready to faint
At a scrape o' pitch or a penn'orth o' paint…

But she's been 'ere, an' she's been there…
An' she's been almost everywhere;
An' whenever you'd see 'er,
With 'er rust-red hawse an' 'er battered old funnel,
All muck an' dirt from 'er keel to 'er gun'le…

She's earned 'er keep in a number o' climes…
She's changed 'er name a number of times
Which won't fit right into these 'ere rhymes;
But the name o' 'er now is the "Sound o' Mull" –
Built on the Tyne an' sails out of 'Ull…

'Er keel was laid in Seventy-four…
An' a breaker's price was 'er price before;
The ships was scarce an' the freights did soar;
But she's fetched 'er fourteen pound a ton
On the Baltic Exchange since the war begun…

So she's doin' 'er bit, which we all must do…
An' whether she's old or whether she's new;
Don't make much odds to a war-time crew;
An' 'ooever's sunk, or 'ooever's drowned,
The "Sound o' Mull" keeps pluggin' around…

An' when she goes, by night or by day…
Either up or down, as she likely may,
I only 'ope as somebody 'll say,
"'Er keel was laid in Seventy-four,
She done 'er best, an' she couldn't do more;
She warn't no swell, nor she warn't no beauty,
But she come by 'er end in the way of 'er duty"…

Cheerily,
Charley Noble