We had battled all the morning, \u2019mid the never-ceasing hail
\nOf shot and shell and splinter, of cable-shred, and sail;
\nWe had thrice received their onslaught, which we thrice had driven back,
\nAnd were waiting, calm and ready, for the last forlorn attack;
\nWhen the stainless flag of England, that has braved a thousand years,
\nWas shot clean from the masthead; and they gave three hearty cheers.<\/p>\n
\u2019Twas the purpose of a moment, and the bravest of our tars
\nPlunged headlong in the boiling surf, amid the broken spars;
\nHe snatched the shot-torn colours, and wound them round his arm,
\nThen climbed upon the deck again, and stood there safe and calm
\nHe paused but for a moment – for it was no time to stay –
\nThen leaped into the rigging that had yet survived the fray;
\nHigher yet he climbed and higher, till he gained a dizzy height,
\nAnd then turned and paused a moment to look down upon the fight.<\/p>\n
Whistled wild the shots around him, as a curling, smoky wreath
\nFormed a cloudy shroud to hide him from the enemy beneath.
\nBeat his heart with proud elation as he firmly fixed his stand,
\nAnd again the colours floated as he held them in his hand.
\nThen with pistol deftly wielded, \u2019mid the battle’s ceaseless blast,
\nFastened there the colours firmly, as he nailed them to the mast;
\nThen, as if to yield him glory, the smoke-clouds cleared away –
\nAnd we sent him up the loudest cheer that reached his ear that day,
\nAnd, with new-born zeal and courage, dashed more boldly to the fight,
\nTill the day of battle ended in the triumph of the night.<\/p>\n
Anonymous<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We had battled all the morning, \u2019mid the never-ceasing hail Of shot and shell and splinter, of cable-shred, and sail; We had thrice received their onslaught, which we thrice had driven back, And were waiting, calm and ready, for the last forlorn attack; When the stainless flag of England, that has braved a thousand years, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-614","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.sunderland.ac.uk\/seagullcity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.sunderland.ac.uk\/seagullcity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.sunderland.ac.uk\/seagullcity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.sunderland.ac.uk\/seagullcity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.sunderland.ac.uk\/seagullcity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.sunderland.ac.uk\/seagullcity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":616,"href":"https:\/\/wp.sunderland.ac.uk\/seagullcity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/614\/revisions\/616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.sunderland.ac.uk\/seagullcity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}