Wood County Reporter

The Cheer of the Trenton.

Our anchors drag and our cables surge
At every shock of the hurrying sea.
While the mist of the breakers veils the verge
Of the reef of coral under our lee,
From the east by north to the north-north
west
The wild typhoon veers sweep on sweep.
And from moment to moment the cross
wave's crest
Buries our waist in its sidelong leap.
Under the blows of our plunging screw
The whitening breakers foam and churn,
But for all that steam and steel can do
We are drifting slowly astern, astern
On our starboard quarter close aboard
We see the stanch Calliope loom,
While the black flood, from her smokestack
poured,
Covers the sea like a pall of doom.
Her topmasts struck and her yards braced
sharp,
She is headed out for the open main,
While her shrouds like the strings of a giant's
harp,
Scream to the touch of the hurricane.
We from the flagship Trenton's decks
Are watching her battle in hope and dread
As she threads the throng of the tossing
wrecks,
Now beaten backward, now forging ahead
the with the red-cross ensign aloft
And we, our starry banner below.
Lie beam to beam, as frigates oft
Ranged in old sea fights long ago.
We watch the weight of the tempest fall
On her flooded decks and her reeling bow.
And our hearts are beating one and all.
For we both go down should she foul us
now.
Through the darkest night there's a gleam to
break:
Fathom by fathom she forges past,
Till we know by the swirl of her eddying wake
That her seaward struggle is won at last.
The Admiral tosses his sea cap high.
As from station to station is passed the word.
And over the uproar of wave and sky
The thunder roll of our cheer is heard.
And back from the Briton's taffrail came
The gallant, grateful, and proud reply.
That stirred our hearts like a pulse of flame.
The seaman's and brother's last good-by.
O blood is thicker than water, and long
Will England's memory hold it dear,
And the tale be told in fo'castle song
Of the flagship Trenton's parting cheer.
-Walter Mitchell in New York Sun