Gallery
The League's Annual Luncheon May 4, 2024
aboard Captain Cook lll, Sydney Harbour
aboard Captain Cook lll, Sydney Harbour
We honour them …
History reminds us of the casualties of war but it was the incredible number of lives of merchant mariners lost during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War 2 that has prompted one person to honour them in a special way.
David Partridge, who first went to sea as a boy in 1956 wrote a poem in 2002 called Heroes after reading about the horrific loss of life.
Soon the poem was being widely published to great acclaim. It appeared in the British press and was chosen to be read as part of Remembrance Services held at Tower Hill and Whitehall in London and later as part of the 60th Anniversary Remembrance Service of the D-Day landings off the beaches of Normandy.
In Australia, the poem has been cast in bronze as part of the Naval Monument on Memorial Hill, Fremantle, Western Australia.
Apart from a nine-year period working ashore, David Partridge spent most of his working life at sea. At the time of his retirement he was working as Master of the Pilot Cutter in Botany Bay, NSW, Australia.
With the kind permission of the author we are pleased to publish his poem.
Heroes
Don't speak to me of heroes until you've heard the tale
of all those merchant seamen who sailed through storm and gale
to keep the lifelines open in freedom's hour of need
when a tyrant cast a shadow over every nation's creed.
Captains, greasers, cabin boys, mates and engineers
heard the call to duty and cast aside their fears.
They stoked those hungry boilers and stood behind the wheel
whilst cooks and stewards manned the guns on coffins made of steel.
They moved in icy convoys from Scapa to Murmansk
and crossed the widest oceans, never seeking thanks.
They sailed the South Atlantic where raiders lay in wait
and kept the food lines open to Malta and the Cape.
Tracked by silent U-boats which hunted from below,
shelled by mighty cannons and fighters flying low,
they clung to burning lifeboats where the sea had turned to flame
and watched their shipmates disappear to everlasting fame.
I speak not of a handful but forty thousand plus,
some whose names we'll never know in whom we placed our trust.
They never knew the honour of medals on their chests
or marching bands and victory and glory and the rest.
The ocean is their resting place, their tombstone is the wind,
the seabirds' cry their last goodbye to family and friend.
Freighters, troopships, liners and tankers by the score,
fishing boats and coasters, four thousand ships and more
flew their country's ensign as they sank beneath the waves
and took those countless heroes to lonely ocean graves.
Their legacy is freedom to those who hold it dear,
to walk with clear horizons and never hide in fear.
So when you speak of heroes, remember those at sea,
and thank those merchant seamen who died to keep us free.
David Partridge 2002
Don't speak to me of heroes until you've heard the tale
of all those merchant seamen who sailed through storm and gale
to keep the lifelines open in freedom's hour of need
when a tyrant cast a shadow over every nation's creed.
Captains, greasers, cabin boys, mates and engineers
heard the call to duty and cast aside their fears.
They stoked those hungry boilers and stood behind the wheel
whilst cooks and stewards manned the guns on coffins made of steel.
They moved in icy convoys from Scapa to Murmansk
and crossed the widest oceans, never seeking thanks.
They sailed the South Atlantic where raiders lay in wait
and kept the food lines open to Malta and the Cape.
Tracked by silent U-boats which hunted from below,
shelled by mighty cannons and fighters flying low,
they clung to burning lifeboats where the sea had turned to flame
and watched their shipmates disappear to everlasting fame.
I speak not of a handful but forty thousand plus,
some whose names we'll never know in whom we placed our trust.
They never knew the honour of medals on their chests
or marching bands and victory and glory and the rest.
The ocean is their resting place, their tombstone is the wind,
the seabirds' cry their last goodbye to family and friend.
Freighters, troopships, liners and tankers by the score,
fishing boats and coasters, four thousand ships and more
flew their country's ensign as they sank beneath the waves
and took those countless heroes to lonely ocean graves.
Their legacy is freedom to those who hold it dear,
to walk with clear horizons and never hide in fear.
So when you speak of heroes, remember those at sea,
and thank those merchant seamen who died to keep us free.
David Partridge 2002