Perhaps already you may know

SIR BLENNERHASSET PORTICO?

A Captain in the Navy, he -

A Baronet and K.C.B.

You do?

I thought so!

It was that Captain's favourite whim

(A notion not confined to him)

That RODNEY was the greatest tar

Who ever wielded capstan-bar.

He had been taught so.

"BENBOW!

CORNWALLIS!

HOOD! - Belay!

Compared with RODNEY" - he would say -

"No other tar is worth a rap!

The great LORD RODNEY was the chap

The French to polish!

"Though, mind you, I respect LORD HOOD;

CORNWALLIS, too, was rather good;

BENBOW could enemies repel,

LORD NELSON, too, was pretty well -

That is, tol-lol-ish!"

SIR BLENNERHASSET spent his days

In learning RODNEY'S little ways,

And closely imitated, too,

His mode of talking to his crew -

His port and paces.

An ancient tar he tried to catch

Who'd served in RODNEY'S famous batch;

But since his time long years have fled,

And RODNEY'S tars are mostly dead:

EHEU FUGACES!

But after searching near and far,

At last he found an ancient tar

Who served with RODNEY and his crew

Against the French in 'Eighty-two,

(That gained the peerage).

He gave him fifty pounds a year,

His rum, his baccy, and his beer;

And had a comfortable den

Rigged up in what, by merchantmen,

Is called the steerage.

"Now, JASPER" - 't was that sailor's name -"Don't fear that you'll incur my blame

By saying, when it seems to you,

That there is anything I do

That RODNEY wouldn't."

The ancient sailor turned his quid,

Prepared to do as he was bid:

"Ay, ay, yer honour; to begin,

You've done away with 'swifting in' -

Well, sir, you shouldn't!

"Upon your spars I see you've clapped

Peak halliard blocks, all iron-capped.

I would not christen that a crime,

But 'twas not done in RODNEY'S time.

It looks half-witted!

Upon your maintop-stay, I see,

You always clap a selvagee!

Your stays, I see, are equalized -

No vessel, such as RODNEY prized,

Would thus be fitted!

"And RODNEY, honoured sir, would grin

To see you turning deadeyes in,

Not UP, as in the ancient way,

But downwards, like a cutter's stay -

You didn't oughter;

Besides, in seizing shrouds on board,

Breast backstays you have quite ignored;

Great RODNEY kept unto the last

Breast backstays on topgallant mast -

They make it tauter."

SIR BLENNERHASSET "swifted in,"

Turned deadeyes up, and lent a fin

To strip (as told by JASPER KNOX)

The iron capping from his blocks,

Where there was any.

SIR BLENNERHASSET does away,

With selvagees from maintop-stay;

And though it makes his sailors stare,

He rigs breast backstays everywhere -

In fact, too many.

One morning, when the saucy craft

Lay calmed, old JASPER toddled aft.

"My mind misgives me, sir, that we

Were wrong about that selvagee -

I should restore it."

"Good," said the Captain, and that day

Restored it to the maintop-stay.

Well-practised sailors often make

A much more serious mistake,

And then ignore it.

Next day old JASPER came once more:

"I think, sir, I was right before."

Well, up the mast the sailors skipped,

The selvagee was soon unshipped,

And all were merry.

Again a day, and JASPER came:

"I p'r'aps deserve your honour's blame,

I can't make up my mind," said he,

"About that cursed selvagee -

It's foolish - very.

"On Monday night I could have sworn

That maintop-stay it should adorn,

On Tuesday morning I could swear

That selvagee should not be there.

The knot's a rasper!"

"Oh, you be hanged," said CAPTAIN P.,

"Here, go ashore at Caribbee.

Get out - good bye - shove off - all right!"Old JASPER soon was out of sight -

Farewell, old JASPER!