It was the steamship Dinkinbar,
From the Gulf of Mexico
For Liverpool in time of war
With a thousand mules below,
And a bunch of polyglot muleteers
To tend on them also.
A swarthy breed from Eagle Butte,
And a greaser from Brazil,
And Daly of the broken nose,
And Ike, and Texas Bill.
In divers tongues that yarned and swore
And wrangled o’er their play,
As they dealt their deck of greasy cards
To pass the hours away.
And talked of how to burn good pay
And play the blooming fool
Among the wenches and the sharks
In the port of Liverpool.
But Texas Bill a bitter laugh
He’d laugh and shake his head:
“It’s me for a new style jamboree
When I strike land,” he said.
“My brother lies in deep water
Not over far from here,
Where a U-boat sank both ship and men,
A bit beyond Cape Clear.”
“They left him to drown with his drownin’ mules
In the light of open day,
An’ I guess I’ll not sleep easy o’ nights
While that score’s yet to pay.”
“So I’m goin’ in for a khaki suit
When I gets in from sea,
I kin shift my birthplace north o’ the line
As handy as kin be,
An’ . . . I guess there’ll sure be a fightin’ job
For a big long thing like me!”
It was the steamship Dinkinbar,
At the stormy end o’ the year
That came in sight of the Bull and Cow
Which are beside Cape Clear.
And soon as rang the lookout’s cry
That hailed the sight of land,
Oh, they were aware of a U-boat there
That signaled them to stand.
She fired a shot across their hawse
And they had to heave to them,
For she could make her fifteen knots,
And the Dinkinbar but ten,
And she had her machine gun ready to fire
On all but unarmed men.
Her captain he came over the side,
A cold-eyed swaggering Hun
That wore the Iron Cross on his breast
To tell of murders done —
And his squarehead crew brought up their bombs
To send the ship below
With the poor living things she bore
That know not a friend or foe.
It was a British ship of war
Was swiftly drawing near,
For she had heard of a submarine
Was lurking off Cape Clear
She came from the South with a bone in her mouth,
Her shot sang over the sea,
And straight for the pirate’s conning tower
It sped like a hiving bee,
It struck — it smashed it like a shell —
That down like a stone went she.
Then the pirate captain ran to the rail
To signal to his crew,
But all he saw was a smear of oil
On the water’s face that grew.
And first he swore and gnawed his lip,
And glanced around in fear,
Till a thought came into his mind again
That brought him better cheer.
“Are not the English easy folk
With pirates ta’en in war?
And my luck is good that safe I stand
On the deck of the Dinkinbar.”
He turned — he saw the muleteers
Come surging from below,
(Like a rustlers’ crowd you see on screen
At a moving picture show).
And once he looked on Texas Bill,
And then he turned and ran,
For the look he saw it was not good
To see on the face of man.
Then in and out among the boats,
By hatch and alleyway,
Hunter and hunted, to and fro
In deadly chase sped they.
And through the engine-room where stilled
Was now the engine’s clang,
On steel ladder and steel grating
Their footsteps slipped and rang.
Till in the screw shaft’s stifling dark,
With spent and grasping breath
The U-boat’s captain turned at last
To pay his dues to death . . .
And twice Bill lifted his hand to strike,
And twice he turned aside,
But his brother’s blood it called so loud
It would not be denied,
And down in the dark (like those he slew)
The U-boat captain died.
The cruiser’s boat came under the side,
They hailed her with a cheer,
And Texas Bill looked over the rail
And called both loud and clear,
“Come up, come up, now, Lootenant,
But you’ll find no prisoner here.”
“For Texas law is life for life
Alike in peace and war,
And life for life has paid this day
On board o’ the Dinkinbar.”
(Cicely Fox Smith)
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