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The
Ships That Won't
Go Down
We hear a great
commotion
'Bout the ship that
comes to grief,
That founders in
mid-ocean,
Or is driven on a
reef;
Because it's cheap
and brittle
A score of sinners
drown.
But we hear but
mighty little
Of the ships that
won't go down.
Here's honour to
the builders -
The builders of the
past;
Here's honour to
the builders
That builded ships
to last;
Here's honour to
the captain,
And honour to the
crew;
Here's
double-column headlines
To the ships that
battle through.
They make a great
sensation
About famous men
that fail,
That sink a world
of chances
In the city morgue
or gaol,
Who drink, or blow
their brains out,
Because of
"Fortune's frown."
But we hear far too
little
Of the men who
won't go down.
The world is full
of trouble,
And the world is
full of wrong,
But the heart of
man is noble,
And the heart of
man is strong!
They say the sea
sings dirges,
But I would say to
you
That the wild
wave's song's a paean
For the men that
battle through.
--Henry Lawson (Australian, d.
1922)
As
we begin a new year,
may the wild waves be singing for you.
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Giovanni da
Verrazzano, by Ettore Ximenes, dedicated 1909; located in New York City’s
Battery Park.
Verrazzano,
an intrepid and persistent navigator, on April 17, 1524 became the first
European to sail into New York Harbor. His report of the event, geared to the
interests of the French merchants who employed him, foreshadowed New York’s
importance as a commercial center:
A very pleasant place, situated amongst
certain little steep hills; from amidst the which hills there ran down into
the sea a great stream of water, which within the mouth was very deep, and
from the sea to the mouth of same, with the tide, which we found to rise 8
foot, any great vessel laden may pass up. …A contrary flaw of the wind coming
from the sea, we were enforced to return to our ship, leaving this land, to
our great discontentment for the great commodity and pleasantness thereof,
which we suppose is not without some riches, all the hills showing mineral
matters in them.”
The Lawson poem and the details
about Verrazzano are excerpted from Dianne Durante’s Forgotten Delights: The Producers, a celebration of nineteen of
Manhattan’s outdoor sculptures of
explorers,
inventors, engineers, businessmen and workers whose thoughts and efforts
reshaped New York, the United States and the world. For more details or to
purchase a copy, visit
www.ForgottenDelights.com.
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