This was posted by Jordan J. Gardner on the WW II discussion list. It is a bit of naval law that tells us much more about serving aboard ship than any set of wargame rules. Thanks to Mr. Gardner. Now these are the laws of the Navy, unwritten and varied they be: And he that is wise will observe them, Going down in his ship to the sea; As naught may outrun the destroyer, even so with the law and its grip, For the strength of the ship is the service, and the strength of the service, the ship. Take heed what ye say of your seniors, be your words spoken softly or plain, Lest a bird of the air tell the matter, and so ye shall hear it again. If ye labor from morn until even', and meet with reproof for your toil, It is well—that the guns be humbled, The compressor must check the recoil. On the strength of one link in the cable, dependeth the might of the chain. Who knows when thou mayest be tested? So live that thou bearest the strain. When the ship that is tired returneth with the signs of the sea showing plain, Men place her in dock for a season, and her speed she reneweth again. So shall thou, lest perchance thou grow weary in the uttermost parts of the sea, Pray for leave, for the good of the service, as much and as oft as may be. Count not upon certain promotion, but rather to gain it aspire; Through the sight-line end at the target, there commeth perchance a miss-fire. If ye win through an artic ice floe, Unmentioned at home in the press, heed it not, no man seeth the piston, but it driveth the ship none the same. Cans't follow the track of the dolphin or tell where the sea swallows roam; Where leviathan taketh his pastime; what ocean he calleth his home? Even so with the words of thy seniors, and the orders those words shall convey. Every law is as naught beside this one — "Thou shall not criticise, but obey!" Saith the wise, "How may I know their purpose?" then acts without wherefore or why. Stays the fool but one moment to question, and the chance of his life passeth by. Do they growl? It is well; be thou silent, so that work goeth forward amain; Lo, the gun throws her shot to a hair's breath and shouteth, yet none shall complain. Do they growl and the work be retarded? It is ill, speak, whatever their rank; The half-loaded gun also shouteth, but can she pierce armor with blank? Doth the funnels make war with the paintwork? Do the decks to the cannon complain? Nay, they know that some soap or a scraper unites them as brothers again. So ye, being Heads of Departments, do a growl with a smile on you lip, Lest ye strive and in anger be parted, and lessen the might of your ship. Dost think, in a moment of anger, "Tis well with thy seniors to fight? They prosper, who burn in the morning, the letters they wrote over-night; For some there be, shelved and forgotten, with nothing to thank for their fate, Save that (on a half sheet of foolscap). which a fool "Has the honor to state—." Dost deem that thy vessel needs gilding, and the dockyard forbear to supply; Place thy hand in thy pocket and gild her, there be those who have risen thereby. If the fairway be crowded with shipping, beating homeward the harbor to win, It is meet that, lest any should suffer, the steamers pass cautiously in; So thou, when thou nearest promotion, and the peak that is gilded is nigh, Give heed to thy words and thine actions, lest others be wearied thereby. It is ill for the winners to worry, take thy fate as it comes with a smile, and when thou are safe in the harbor, they will envy , but may not revile. Uncharted the rocks that surround thee, take heed that the channels thou learn, Lest thy name serve to buoy for another, that shoal, the Courts-Martial return. Though armor, the belt that protects her, the ship bears the scar on her side; It is well if the court acquit thee; it were best hadst thou never been tried. Now these are the laws of the Navy, unwritten and varied they be; And he that is wise will observe them, going down in his ship to the sea. As the wave rises clear to the hawse pipe, washes aft, and is lost in the wake, so shall ye drop astern, all unheeded, such time as the law ye forsake. Now these are the laws of the Navy, and many and might are they, But the hull and the deck and the land and the truck of the last is —OBEY BT Back to The Naval Sitrep #6 Table of Contents Back to Naval Sitrep List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Larry Bond and Clash of Arms. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com