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THE SERVICE
61
Their wisdom has three words, unwrit, untold,But handed down from heart to heart of old:The first is this: while ships are ships the aimOf every man aboard is still the same.On land there's something men self-interest call,Here each must save himself by saving all.Your danger's mine: who thinks to stand asideWhen the ship's buffeted by wind and tide?If she goes down, we know that we go too—Not just the watch on deck, but all the crew.Mark now what follows—no half-willing workFrom minds divided or from hands that shirk,But that one perfect freedom, that contentWhich comes of force for something greater spent,And welds us all, from conning tower to keel,In one great fellowship of tempered steel.
The third is like to these:—there is no peaceIn the sea-life, our warfare does not cease.The great emergency in which we strainWith all our force, our passion and our pain,Is no mere transient fight with hostile kings,But mortal war against immortal things—Danger and Death themselves, whose end shall beWhen there is no more wind and no more sea.
What of this sea-born wisdom? Is it notTruth that on land we have too long forgotWhile this great ship the Commonwealth's afloatAre we not seamen all, and in one boat?
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