Monday 10 February 2014

February 10: Where fate calls


A Daring class destroyer, built in New South Wales
She saw just seven summers, now we remember her in tales
Tales of courage, tales of loss, of bravery and fright
Heroism and horror, borne from that dreadful night
A mighty crash at five to nine, the sound of steel on steel
A deafening collision, as the Voyager she reeled
Her port side crushed and mangled, her bridge took all the force
Sliced apart in seconds, as Melbourne held her course

Her bow went down in moments, time it seemed to stop
Her bridge and then her foc’sle, a six hundred fathom drop
Those left they did not panic, as their ship was doomed for death
They manned the boats, began to search, for the survivors who were left
Within the messdecks heroes toiled, to get others out alive
They prayed, sang hymns and selflessly, died so others would survive
Eighty-two men were lost that night, in the greatest loss in peace
Many hundreds more they suffered, as the details were released

Blame was tossed from ship to ship, which Captain was to blame? 
But just one Captain had survived; would they damn his name?
A Royal Commission sought the truth, witnesses were heard
The press gave their opinion, the public hung on every word
Accusations of negligence, of drunkenness, of failures
But each Captain was a hero, respected by his sailors
Robertson he left the sea, the fault was his they said
But he would not speak out against his friend; he would not blame the dead

Five decades now have passed us by, since those ships became entwined
In peacetime’s worst disaster, of a military kind
We remember them those who were lost, on February 10
And we count the cost of losing them; husbands, sons and friends
Good men lost into the sea, on a training exercise
Some say it was not worth it, the sheer futility despised
The sea she is a mistress, dark, cruel and unforgiving
But we remember them, those eighty two, as we here go on living

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