The Anchor Watch

O shipmates all, as you lay sleeping (Blow, boys, blow!) Across the world the day came creeping (Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!) With a cold wet wind the shrouds were shaking, And in all the port was no one waking, In the morning watch and the grey dawn breaking (Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!) I saw a ship come down the river (Blow, boys, blow!) In the morning light her sails did shiver (Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!) I saw the sun on her royals gleaming And her gilded trucks in the dawn a-gleaming, And the bubbled foam of her bow-wave streaming - (Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!) I heard the gulls all round her calling (Blow, boys, blow!) I heard the watch on the braces hauling (Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!) I heard their voices over the water - 'O Shenandoah, I love your daughter' - And the dash o' the tide on her weather quarter (Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!) Then like a cloud she broke and lifted (Blow, boys, blow!) Her spars did melt, her sails they drifted (Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!) And all that I saw was a white mist flying, All that I heard, the grey gulls crying, And the tide's sob and the wind's sighing. . . . And one far call out of dreams replying (Blow, boys, bully boys, blow!)