CHAPTER IX
Life Aboard Old Ironsides"And now to thee, O Captain,
Most earnestly I pray,
That they may never bury me
In church or cloister gray;
But on the windy sea-beach,
At the ending of the land,
All on the surfy sea-beach,
Deep down into the sand.
For there will come the sailors,
Their voices I shall hear,
And at casting of the anchor
The yo-ho loud and clear;
And at hauling of the anchor
The yo-ho and the cheer,—
Farewell, my love, for to the bay
I never more may steer."
—W. Allingham.
"I hear it reported," Samuel Childs remarked one night on watch, "that Captain Edward Preble is coming out in command of the Constitution. Looks like he'll have charge of the Mediterranean fleet. A hard man. A hot temper. He's as rough as the New Hampshire rocks where he was born. I d
