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On Patrol

Chapter 87: FOOTNOTES:
By John Graham Bower
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History - BritishHistory - Modern (1750+)History - WarfarePoetry

About This Book

A collection of poems that explores life at sea during war through vivid snapshots of patrols, ships, and crews. Verses alternate between elegy and morale-boosting satire, mourning the missing and wounded, celebrating comradeship, and criticizing complacent attitudes ashore. Several pieces evoke action and danger—submarines, destroyers, and fleet encounters—while others dwell on exile, waiting, and quiet aftermath. Tone shifts from patriotic fervor to bitter irony and reflective lament, united by maritime imagery and a focus on duty, sacrifice, and the human cost of conflict.

IN the evening—in the sunset—when the long day dies,
Out across the broad Atlantic, where the great seas go,
When the Golden Gates are open and the sunlight flies,
The fairy Islands drift and fade against the crimson glow.
In the evening, when the fiery sun was sinking in the West,
St Brandan and the chosen few went sailing out to sea,—
To the Westward—to the sunset—to the Golden Isle of rest,
The haven of the weary men, the land of Fairie.
Is it only in the sunset we may find the Golden Fleece?
Is it only to the Westward that the Fairyland is found?
And those who went away from us and passed from war to peace—
Are they looking still for Fairyland the wide world round?
Then as I gazed across the dark the morning answer came—
To Eastward stretched the golden sea for many a golden mile;
The far horizon joined the sky in dancing lines of flame—
And drifting on the seas of dawn, I saw St Brandan's Isle.

PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A letter-form which enables the sender to address his Seniors more abruptly than he would dare to do without its assistance.

[2] D.S.B. = Duty Steam Boat.

[3] A.I.O. = Admiralty Interim Order.

[4] K.R.A.I. = King's Regulations and Admiralty Instructions.

[5] C.P.O. = Chief Petty Officer.

[6] O.O.D.—Officer of the day.