Songs of the Fleet - The Song of the Sou' Wester

The sun was lost in a leaden sky,             And the shore lay under our lee;         When a great Sou' Wester hurricane high             Came rollicking up the sea.         He played with the fleet as a boy with boats             Till out for the Downs we ran,         And he laugh'd with the roar of a thousand throats             At the militant ways of man:                 Oh!    I am the enemy most of might,                 The other be who you please!                 Gunner and guns may all be right,                 Flags a-flying and armour tight,                 But I am the fellow you've first to fight--                 The giant that swings the seas.         A dozen of middies were down below             Chasing the X they love,         While the table curtseyed long and slow             And the lamps were giddy above.         The lesson was all of a ship and a shot,             And some of it may have been true,         But the word they heard and never forgot             Was the word of the wind that blew:                 Oh!    I am the enemy most of might,                 The other be who you please!                 Gunner and guns may all be right,                 Flags a-flying and armour tight,                 But I am the fellow you've first to fight--                 The giant that swings the seas.         The Middy with luck is a Captain soon,             With luck he may hear one day         His own big guns a-humming the tune             "'Twas in Trafalgar's Bay."         But wherever he goes, with friends or foes,             And whatever may there befall,         He'll hear for ever a voice he knows             For ever defying them all:                 Oh!    I am the enemy most of might,                 The other be who you please!                 Gunner and guns may all be right,                 Flags a-flying and armour tight,                 But I am the fellow you've first to fight--                 The giant that swings the seas.