The Project Gutenberg EBook of Flag and Fleet, by William Wood

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Title: Flag and Fleet
How the British Navy Won the Freedom of the Seas

Author: William Wood

Release Date: November 17, 2006 [EBook #19849]
Last updated: March 3, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FLAG AND FLEET ***

Produced by Al Haines

THE SEA IS HIS

_Thy way is in the sea, and
Thy path in the great waters,
and Thy footsteps are not known.
--Psalm LXXVII. v. 19._

The Sea is His: He made it,
Black gulf and sunlit shoal
From barriered bight to where the long
Leagues of Atlantic roll:
Small strait and ceaseless ocean
He bade each one to be:
The Sea is His: He made it--
And England keeps it free.

By pain and stress and striving
Beyond the nations' ken,
By vigils stern when others slept,
By lives of many men;
Through nights of storm, through dawnings
Blacker than midnights be--
This sea that God created,
England has kept it free.

Count me the splendid captains
Who sailed with courage high
To chart the perilous ways unknown--
Tell me where these men lie!
To light a path for ships to come
They moored at Dead Man's quay;
The Sea is God's--He made it,
And these men made it free.

Oh little land of England,
Oh mother of hearts too brave,
Men say this trust shall pass from thee
Who guardest Nelson's grave.
Aye, but these braggarts yet shall learn
Who'd hold the world in fee,
The Sea is God's--and England,
England shall keep it free.

--R. E. VERNEDE.

[Frontispiece: VIKING MAN-OF-WAR.]

FLAG AND FLEET

HOW THE BRITISH NAVY WON THE
FREEDOM OF THE SEAS

BY

WILLIAM WOOD

Lieutenant-Colonel, Canadian Militia; Member of the Canadian Special
Mission Overseas; Editor of "The Logs of the Conquest of Canada";
Author of "All Afloat: A Chronicle of Craft and Waterways";
"Elizabethan Sea Dogs: A Chronicle of Drake and his Companions"; and
"The Fight for Canada: A Naval and Military Sketch."

WITH A PREFACE BY

ADMIRAL-OF-THE-FLEET SIR