NavyDEP
 

Go Back   NavyDEP > Ratings (Jobs) > Firemen (Snipes) > EN = ENGINEMAN

Family Members join our new Facebook group sponsored by NavyDEP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Rtcgreatlakes


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 05-25-2009, 09:55 AM   #1
NavyMom2007
Senior Member

 
NavyMom2007's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: mid-Missouri
Posts: 1,006
Rep Power: 108
NavyMom2007 is on a distinguished road
Default The Snipe's Lament

Although today's Snipes have it much better, I thought this would be good to post here.
The photo is from the USS Missouri, it's the boiler room on the Mighty Mo:




Now each of us from time to time has gazed upon the sea
and watched the mighty warships pulling out to keep this country free.
And most of us have read a book or heard a lusty tale,
about these men who sail these ships through lightning, wind and hail.
But there's a place within each ship that legend's fail to teach.
It's down below the water-line and it takes a living toll
- - a hot metal living hell, that sailors call the "Hole."
It houses engines run with steam that makes the shafts go round.
A place of fire, noise, and heat that beats your spirits down.
Where boilers like a hellish heart, with blood of angry steam,
are molded gods without remorse, are nightmares in a dream.

Whose threat from the fires roar, is like a living doubt,
that at any moment with such scorn, might escape and crush you out.
Where turbines scream like tortured souls, alone and lost in Hell,
are ordered from above somewhere, they answer every bell.
The men who keep the fires lit and make the engines run,
are strangers to the light and rarely see the sun.
They have no time for man or God, no tolerance for fear,
their aspect pays no living thing a tribute of a tear.
For there's not much that men can do that these men haven't done,
beneath the decks, deep in the hole, to make the engines run.
And every hour of every day they keep the watch in Hell,
for if the fires ever fail their ship's a useless shell.

When ships converge to have a war upon an angry sea,
the men below just grimly smile at what their fate will be.
They're locked below like men fore-doomed, who hear no battle cry,
it's well assumed that if they're hit men below will die.
For every day's a war down there when gauges all read red,
twelve-hundred pounds of heated steam can kill you mighty dead.

So if you ever write their songs or try to tell their tale,
the very words would make you hear a fired furnace's wail.
And people as a general rule don't hear of these men of steel,
so little heard about this place that sailors call the "Hole."
But I can sing about this place and try to make you see,
the hardened life of the men down there, 'cause one of them is me.
I've seen these sweat-soaked heroes fight in superheated air,
to keep their ship alive and right, though no one knows they're there.

And thus they'll fight for ages on till warships sail no more,
amid the boiler's mighty heat and the turbine's hellish roar.
So when you see a ship pull out to meet a war-like foe,
remember faintly if you can, "The Men Who Sail Below."

-Anonymous
__________________
Sandy-Always on Active Duty as a Proud Navy Mom

PIR 03-30-07 http://www.photoshow.com/watch/zX8Zq9Cv

NavyMom2007 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-25-2009, 11:22 AM   #2
Craig
Administrator
 
Craig's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Centennial, Colorado
Posts: 2,767
Rep Power: 285
Craig has disabled reputation
Default

Great post Sandy!
__________________


Craig is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:17 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 3
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.

vBulletin Optimisation provided by vB Optimise v2.6.0 (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
This site and contents ©2009-2014 NavyFamiles