Extract from the Naval Chronicle for Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2010

Today’s extract from The Naval Chronicle is from the 10th edition, published in 1803.

under the header GAZETTE LETTERS

THE TAR.

A PARODY OF SHAKESPEARE'S SEVEN AGES.

AT first, the cabin boy,
Cleaning the guns, and clearing out the deck;
And then, the gallant sailor, with tarr'd jacket,
And sun burn'd face, climbing like nimble cat
The topmost mast; then in a privateer,
Raging like furnace to pour in a broadside
On the rich Spaniard; then heading a press gang,
With bludgeon arm’d, and watching like a pard,
He drags, with oaths and blows, the pallid victim
Aboard the tender; then, prepar’d for signal,
In well-mann'd fleet, by modern instances
Of Nile and Baltic, he's led on to glory,
Even in the cannon's mouth; next rendezvous,
In port, on grand illumination night,
Dollars in pocket, doxies by his side,
He scorns to save a doit. The world, too scant
For his big spirit, in noisy revels, huzzas,
Songs, fiddles, reels, hornpipes, and flowing bowls,
He drowns his cares: next day to sea again.
Last scene that ends this strange advent'rous history,
Is Greenwich pension; mess, tobacco, grog,
And cheers to good Old England's wooden walls.

X, 73