The Doreen 'B'

When i was in the merchant navy
I did not have
A girl in every port (or fortified wine?)
I had a porthole in every gale
Which i had to make sure
That it was secure
Against a swelling seas might
I only once forgot
My cabin had a foot of water
Which is quite a lot
More than it oughter
And i had to remember that
My porthole, was not a portal
To a world, where the oceans lay flat
There were moments
Where the terror was stark
As we got caught in a severe storm
(a force eleven, is nobody's heaven)
Fifteen miles off the Belgium coast, it was dark
The engines died, the power now missed
But somehow made it to the Hook
With a fifteen degree list
On that trip, no seasickness was near
It was taken away, because of the fear
I told the skipper that i couldn't swim
He said even if you were an olympian
Your chances would be slim
Then confided, as an aside
That he  couldn't swim, nothing to hide
Our ship was an old rust bucket Dutch coaster
Comparatively, no bigger than a toaster
But i have many memories of my time at sea
As i spent six months aboard the Doreen B

by Jemia