alfie and me

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alfie and me

Alfie and me on the poop deck jawing about the war,
We didn’t see it coming – we never heard a roar,
Tin fish blew our tanker up, then it wasn’t there,
Found ourselves in the ‘oggin after flying in the air.

The sea afire and burning – we were in the clear,
Just me and him went diving – nobody else was near,
Alfie found some flotsam – his arm hooked round a spar,
He could hear me swearing – I wasn’t away too far.

He flippered his way towards me and grabbed me by my shirt,
Bent me to the timber – told him I was hurt,
“Not a night for swimming” he bellows with a grin,
“Not” says I just gasping “wiv arf me ribs stove in”.

I feared of what would happen, striving to stay afloat
Atlantic cold – near freezing and oil had reached my throat,
Alfie was out of the stoke hold – a stubborn buggar was he,
(I was one of the deck crowd, he had cottoned on to me).

For hours and hours he held me, ‘most drowned and body aching,
Without a doubt he saved me, through the dawn a` breaking
I was finished with engines, ready to chuck it all in,
Alfie it was that chivvied, with jokes as bad as sin.

I figured we should pray, in case we might survive,
But he didn’t think that prayers would keep us both alive,
He said he knew no hymns, ‘cus he’d never shipped on liners,
What he reckoned was – a collection for the miners.

Alfie weren’t religious – he didn’t have to be,
Just a Merchant Seaman living his life at sea,
One o’ them men that won’t give in – fighting ‘till the end,
Lucky for me an’ proud to be his mucker and a friend.

By and by a ship came up with a Navy navigator,
He’d steamed away to chase a sub but marked our spot for later,
There’s only me and Alfie came through that mighty blast,
I spoke a silent prayer – for the mate who held me fast.

(From a true yarn told to me by Alfie’s mate some fifteen years after the event).

J. Earl

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