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VIII.

"Fire the gun at blackest midnight!

Fly Blue Peter' at the fore!
Give the Fleet another minute!

Steam up, there! we're off at score !
Let me see some captain fellow

My sublime designs gainsay,

And I'll munch him, and I'll scrunch him,

As a donkey cheweth hay!

IX.

"Think ye, those poor fools Columbus,
Raleigh, Captain Cook, or Drake,

Knew the half that I've forgotten,
Or one half as wisely spake?
Think ye Blake a prettier sailor,
Nelson's self a pluckier dog?

But for several years, through envy,
All my gifts were lost in fog.

X.

"I was visiting Australia,

Studying Aborigines,

Noting Tory jobs and failures,
Eating junk in many seas.

Worsting Sir John Hay 'The Hammerer,**
Giving falls to Elphinstone,
Crushing jobbing, prying, spying

In the Dockyards, all alone.

XI.

"For at my strange birth presided Thetis and fair Amphitrite,

I was cradled upon ocean

In a memorable night.

* Thor was called "The Hammerer."

Mingled with my squalls infantine

Came the black squall charged with fear; Stormy times mayhap betok'ning,

But a very grand career!

XII.

"Many a time I've box'd the compass,
Thinking upon Heroes dead,
Jason's cruise-Ulysses' wanderings-
Hanno's* voyage with marvels fed!
From the Periplus of Arrian'

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To the Flying Dutchman's' story, Everything has helped the ladder That has lifted me to glory.

* Hanno was the first discoverer of Gorillas.

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