HMS Goodall (K479) : Frigate of the Captain Class

DROWNED SAILOR

Limp and lifeless drifting downward
Sinking slowly through the cold
Washed so slowly there to landward
He would never now grow old

Though no more he would face fear
Back at home old folk will weep
Blue clothes cling about him here
Though all's blackness in the deep

Bubbles rising from this clothing
His warm blood is now all chill
Drifting, sinking just a dead thing
Arctic cold was quick to kill

Fate was sealed and death was grim
For u-boats were here about
He'd called out as ships passed him
Passing matelots heard him shout

In the springtime on the shoreline
Stinking corpses marred the shore
Arctic daytime chilly sunshine
Clearing up a ghastly chore

Those the gods love, they all die young
Gods can love a ship's whole crew
The sailors' hymn is often sung
Death at sea is nothing new

Spirits of these dear departed
Heard upon a gentle breeze
Kin and kith are broken hearted
Sea birds' calls sound ill at ease

©Copyright July 27, 2005 by Trevor Morgan

Author’s Note: This verse and the poem, HMS Bluebell, are based on the Arctic convoys of WW2 and are about the sinking of the Bluebell and the Goodall in 1945. They are initial works for a "Saga of the Arctic"