Through the dockyard, Passed the ‘’Old Vic’’
Get Onboard, find a place to sling your ‘’Mick’’
Find a locker and stow your kit
Get some scran and feel quite fit
Machinery noise like drones in hive
To power the ship the screws to drive
Tannoy broadcast to spread the news
Lower deck lawyer to give his views
Meeting new and some old mates
To go ashore through the dockyard gates
Chinky nosh and several pints of ale
Back on board under notice to sail
Bows plunging and rising through endless wave
Manoeuvring and turning our lives to save
Helicopter lookout salt spray on face
Choppers dipping and moving with endless grace
Clear lower deck and all that Jazz
Hands stand to for doing a RAS
Speeding destroyers and RFAs
Going about in their bustling ways
Film show in the mess again
Ten to one its ‘’Come back Shane’’
Music in the dining hall
Royal Marines and bugle call
Letters home written with bent nib
A can of beer a game of crib
Watch on deck and lifebuoy ghost
Drinking KYE they love the most
A nourishing and refreshing brew
Brings succour to the life boats crew
Bosuns call sharp piercing Trill sounds
That heralds the start of captain’s rounds
Liberty men Fall in by the brow
Foreign ports with Arab dhow
Sailors here from all world parts
Comrades, mess mates with stout hearts
Under bridge like the golden gate
Another channel to navigate
To Eddistone light and Plymouth sound
Starboard your wheel and homeward bound
Duty men close up Cox’n on the wheel
Home port approaches how good it does feel
Home again loved ones in our hearts
Home for good from foreign parts
Out beyond the dockyard gates
To Family & Friends but remember shipmates.