Dan's Dream Poem by Cicely Fox Smith

Here's the dream I had, boys, an' I tell you true,
I saw the old Fulmar plain as I see you -
I saw the old Fulmar as she used to be
Many an' many a year since, when I was first at sea.

Just the bloomin' same, lads, as I've seen her look
Crackin' on with all she'd stand, bound for Pernambuck;
Every stitch a-drawin' - flyin' kites an' all -
An' the crowd all haulin', tallyin' on the fall.

All her swellin' canvas shinin' as she came,
Rosy in the sunset, with all her gilt trucks aflame,
With a bone between her teeth, under royals runnin' free,
I saw the old Fulmar swingin' out to sea.

I saw the old man there, as life-like as you please,
With his old white whiskers blowin' in the breeze,
An' the mate in the waist, an' the look-out at the fore,
An' old Slush standin' just inside his galley door.

All the crowd was there, boys, all the chaps I knew,
Dagoes, Dutch an' British, good an' bad uns too,
The seamen an' the sojers, the worst an' the best,
An' myself there among 'em, haulin' with the rest.

That's the dream I had, boys, an' so I tell you true,
I saw the old Fulmar - I saw her an' I knew -
Knew her to a gantline as I ought to know -
Me as served aboard her forty years ago.