The Laws of the Navy
Now these are the laws of the Navy Unwritten and varied they be And he that is wise will observe them Going down in his ship to the sea As naught may outrun the destroyer Even so with the law and its grip For the strength of the ship is the service And the strength of the service, the ship Take heed what ye say of your seniors Be your words spoken softly or plain Lest a bird of the air tell the matter And so ye shall hear it again If ye labor from morn to even' And most with reproof for your toil It is well that the guns be humbled The compressor must check the recoil On the strength of one link in the cable Dependeth the might of the chain Who knows thou mayest be tested So live that thou bearest the strain When he ship that is tired returneth With the signs of the sea showing plain Men place her in dock for a season And her speed she reneweth again So shall thou, lest perchance thou grow weary In the uttermost parts of the sea Pray for leave, for the good of the service As much and as oft as may be Count not upon certain promotion But rather to gain it aspire Though the sight-line end of the target There cometh, perchance, a miss-fire If ye win through an Arctic ice floe Unmentioned at home in the press Heed it not, no man seeth the piston But it driveth the ship none the less Can'st follow the track of the dolphin Or tell where the sea swallows roam Where leviathan taketh his pastime What ocean he calleth his home Even so with the words of the seniors And the orders those words shall convey Every law is as naught beside the one "Thou shalt not criticize but obey!" Saith the wise, "How may I know their purpose?" Then acts without wherefore or why Stays the fool but one moment to question And the chance of his life passeth by Do they growl? It is well: be thou silent So that work goeth forward amain Lo, the gun throw her shot to a hair's breath And shouteth, yet none shall complain Do they growl and the work be retarded? It is ill, speak, whatever their rank	The half-loaded gun also shouteth But can she pierce armor with blanks? Doth the funnels make war with the paintwork Do the decks to the cannon complain Nay, they know that some soap or a scraper Unites them as brothers again So ye, being heads of departments Do your growl with a smile on your lip Lest ye strive and in anger be parted And lessen the might of you ship Dost think, in a moment of anger "Tis well with they seniors to fight?" they prosper, who burn in the morning the letters they wrote over-night For some there be, shelved and forgotten With nothing to thank for their fate Save that on a half-sheet of foolscap Which a fool "Had the honor to state" Dost deem that thy vessel needs gilding And the dockyard forbear to supply Place they hand in thy pocket and gild her There be those who have risen thereby If the fairway be crowded with shipping Beating homeward the harbor to win It is meet that lest any should suffer The steamers pass cautiously in So thou, when thou nearest promotion And the peak this is gilded is nigh Give heed to thy words and thine actions Lest others be wearied thereby Is it sill for the winners to worry Take they fate as is comes with a smile And when thou art safe in the harbor They will envy, but may not revile Uncharted the rocks that surround thee Take heed that the channels thou learn Lest they name serve to buoy for another That shoal, the Courts Martial return Though armor, the belt that protects her The ship bears the scar on her side It is well if the court acquit her It were best hadst though never been tried Now these are the laws of the Navy Unwritten and varied they be And he that is wise to observe them Going down in his ship to the sea As the wave rises clear in the hawse pipe Washes aft, and is lost in the wake So shall ye drop astern, all unheeded, Such time as the law ye forsake Now these are the laws of the Navy And many and mighty are they But the hull and the deck and keep And the truck of the law is - OBEY.
Captain Hopwood, RN