GLENESK

(The Glenesk was a steam drifter that worked out of Stornoway between the wars. She was broken up on Gress Beach in 1953.)

Fiddle, bow,
Your notes drift down the wind
By silent ghosts of stoker, cook and crew
In Sunday ganseys, caps upraised.

Fiddle, bow,
Play paean to a rover's past,
Spent mining seams of silver
From Stornoway to Lowestoft,
Once a hunter,
Now a restrainer of beasts,
Timbers turned to fenceposts,
Driftnets turned to wire mesh,
Galvanised against salt winds
And evil spirits.

Fiddle, bow,
Let gracenotes fly
In praise of modest fortunes reaped,
Of cash on counter, bread on table,
Children fed and shod and clothed
Then grown and gone.

Fiddle, bow,
Let music fade
As smoke from quenched fire,
Or steam from cooling piston.
The wrecking steel, the acetylene flame
Succeed where shipwreck failed,
Though steady ribs and
Stalwart bronze remain as monuments,
Etched by tide while diesel days inch by
Like hempen rope, paid out
By strong and well-remembered hands.