In the dark of the dawn we heard her blow
As you swung her and steamed away,
And we sleepily rose to watch her go --
A ghost in the morning grey.
And it came to me there in the light so dim
That, of all the toasts we drank,
Last night when we talked of the ships that swim
And the tired old boats that sank --
Of all the toasts -- they were none too few! --
The best of the lot, by far,
Would have been "The ship that carried us through!"
And we never once toasted the "Star."
So, fill up your glasses, you sailormen,
And we'll drink this brave toast now,
When the old ship's out on the seas again
With the foam all white at her prow.
While her stout hull sways to the lullabies
Of the winds that are wanderers --
Oh! never a brave hull rode the seas
So sturdy and staunch as hers!
You'll have dropped the loom of Australia's coast,
But you, wherever you are,
Must charge your glasses and drink this toast,
"The ship that we love, the Star!"
She has lifted the lights of every land
That is washed by the seven seas.
By the langorous airs of the tropics fanned --
Or the keen, clean Arctic breeze.
She has slogged with her bluff bows head to sea
To battle her way off shore:
When we thought we were logging our "two" or "three,"
She added a good deal more.
And this is the toast that we all forgot
In the glare of the lighted bar --
The worthiest toast of a worthy lot --
"Gentlemen, drink to the Star!"
You will raise the lights on many a coasts,
And the George-street lights will seem
A memory warm and bright at most,
And the harbor lights a dream.
But the Coogee lamps half-mooned, that burn,
And the Bondi lights, will be
As beacons fair when her old bows turn
To the tides of the Tasman Sea.
We have charged our glasses to drink to her
And to you, wherever you are --
("Eight bells and the lights burn brightly, sir!")
Gentlemen, hush! -- "The Star!"
First published in The Australian Town and Country Journal, 16 April 1913
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography
See also.
As you swung her and steamed away,
And we sleepily rose to watch her go --
A ghost in the morning grey.
And it came to me there in the light so dim
That, of all the toasts we drank,
Last night when we talked of the ships that swim
And the tired old boats that sank --
Of all the toasts -- they were none too few! --
The best of the lot, by far,
Would have been "The ship that carried us through!"
And we never once toasted the "Star."
So, fill up your glasses, you sailormen,
And we'll drink this brave toast now,
When the old ship's out on the seas again
With the foam all white at her prow.
While her stout hull sways to the lullabies
Of the winds that are wanderers --
Oh! never a brave hull rode the seas
So sturdy and staunch as hers!
You'll have dropped the loom of Australia's coast,
But you, wherever you are,
Must charge your glasses and drink this toast,
"The ship that we love, the Star!"
She has lifted the lights of every land
That is washed by the seven seas.
By the langorous airs of the tropics fanned --
Or the keen, clean Arctic breeze.
She has slogged with her bluff bows head to sea
To battle her way off shore:
When we thought we were logging our "two" or "three,"
She added a good deal more.
And this is the toast that we all forgot
In the glare of the lighted bar --
The worthiest toast of a worthy lot --
"Gentlemen, drink to the Star!"
You will raise the lights on many a coasts,
And the George-street lights will seem
A memory warm and bright at most,
And the harbor lights a dream.
But the Coogee lamps half-mooned, that burn,
And the Bondi lights, will be
As beacons fair when her old bows turn
To the tides of the Tasman Sea.
We have charged our glasses to drink to her
And to you, wherever you are --
("Eight bells and the lights burn brightly, sir!")
Gentlemen, hush! -- "The Star!"
First published in The Australian Town and Country Journal, 16 April 1913
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography
See also.
