|
This is ripped from Bluewater Bushmen by Bruce Stannard:
JIB 'AND - C.J. Dennis
"Let go that jib!" 'e yells. Now I should know
The way an 18 footer ought to go.
"W'y dont you ease 'er 'ead in them 'ard squals?
W'y don't this, W'y don't you that? 'e bawls.
Now I been in the eighteens since a lad
I follerd in the footsteps of me Dad,
Who sailed with Ellis, Robbo, and Chris Webb,
I know the 'arbor both flood and ebb.
I work our eighteen right into the breeze.
By knowin' w'en to 'old and w'en to ease,
While that mug lair, our skipper, squats down aft,
Just frozen stiff at every fluky draught.
"You'll "ave us in the drink!" he bellyaches,
Cus 'e's just coverin' 'is own mistakes.
A catspaw snakin'down off Bradley's 'Ead
Strikes terror in 'is 'eart, till it's like lead.
To sail our boat you've got to know just 'ow
She likes 'er 'eadsail pinnin'down the bow.
If I go payin' out the bloody sheet,
She gripes - and shivers in the wind a treat
I've got to nail 'er down, or she wont sail,
But all I gets from Muggins s a wail:
"You'd think you got a grey nurse on that line,
You'll swim the mob and think your doin' fine!"
But what's the use of tryin' to explain?
'E wouldn't understand, though its quite plain
that if 'e simply steers, and 'olds his bib,
We're in the money with me on this jib.
And when we get the gun, the papers say:
"E sailed a crafty race, the other day."
'E sailed the race! Well, I'm askin'you:
to which bloke in the boat is the credit due?
|
Login
Register
Search
