<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">To the Crew Of H.M.S. <em>Birmingham</em></h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">You</span> that have been first in war</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To meet that menace of the sea,</p><p class="line">The sunken craft that ne'er before</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Hath tried death's instrument to be, --</p><p class="line">You have won honour and success</p><p class="line">By daring and by skilfulness.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Daring is yours by pure descent</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">From heroes of an earlier age,</p><p class="line">Who blood and treasure freely spent</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To make the sea our heritage,</p><p class="line">Who faced the cannon and the steel,</p><p class="line">And lived and died for England's weal.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And skill is yours, with patience won</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And labour neither brief nor light --</p><p class="line">No novice aimed the blinding gun</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">That reft the submarine of sight --</p><p class="line">Honoured of England let him be</p><p class="line">As Robin Hood of gunnery.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Yours then is England's love and praise,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">O cruiser of the honoured name!</p><p class="line">For whatsoever future days</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">May bring of peril or of fame,</p><p class="line">In your first battle on the sea</p><p class="line">You win your immortality.</p></div><p class="byline">R. H. FORSTER</p><em>Yorkshire Post, August</em> 16, 1914</body></html> · Great War