Donald Beary (FF 1085) - Naval Cruise Book

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Helo ' s on deck, let ' s go home. Sunset, another cruise is over. Air Det Possie Chuckie 232 -N- effect and doin ' it 21

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Ot- (IC) Mac The Hole Snipe ' s Lament Now each of us from time to time has gazed upon the sea, and watched the warships pulling out, to keep this country free. And most of us have read a book, or heard a lusty tale, About the men who sail these ships, through lightning, wind and hail. But there ' s a place within each ship that legend fails to teach. It ' s down below the waterline, it takes a heavy toll, ) + ,-, v j q t- A hot metal living hell that sailors call the hole. ' ' ' It houses engines run by steam, that makes the shaft go round, ll j Q fl S A place of fire, noise, and heat, the beats your spirits down. , , Where boilers like a hellish heart with blood of angry steam. Are molded gods without remorse, are nightmares in a dream. Whose threat that from fires roar is like living doubt. That any minute would with scorn, escape and crush you out. Where turbines scream like tortured souls, alone and lost in hell. As ordered from above somewhere, they answer every bell The men who keep the fires lit and make the engines run. Are strangers to the would of night and rarely see the sun. They have no time for fun, no tolerance for fear. Their aspect pays no living thing the tribute of a tear. For there ' s not much that men can do that these men haven ' t done, Beneath the decks, deep in the hole, to make the engines run. For if the fires ever fail, their ship ' s a useless shell. . i i v » . w : P 1 When ships converge to have a war upon an angry sea. The men below just grimly smile at what their fate might be. They ' re locked in below like men fore doomed, who have no battle cry, It ' s well assumed that if they ' re hit the men below will die. For every day ' s a war down there when all the gauges read red. Twelve hundred pounds of heated steam can kill you mighty dead. So if you ever write their sons or try to tell their tale. The very words would make you hear a fired furnace wail. And people as a general rule, don ' t hear of men of steel. So little ' s heard about this place that sailors call the hole. But I can sing about this place and try to make you see. The hardened life of men down there, cause one of them is me. nee 23