The British sailor, and indeed the British public in general, felt a great loss with the death of Horatio, Viscount Nelson, at Trafalgar. He was a man as much admired by the proletariat as by the aristocracy, and after his death the penny broadsides lamenting his untimely end were among the "best sellers."
This hymn comes to us from the singing of Louis Killen, who tells us that it was put together by A. L. Lloyd for a Trafalgar Day BBC radio program. He fitted the words to a shape-note hymn tune in the collection of a Welsh minister. Though not from the period of the packet ships, it does echo an attitude and sentiment common to the time, and we feel that it deserves its place here.
|
|
Come all you bold seamen, wherever you're bound,
And always let Nelson's proud memory go round.
And pray that the wars and the tumult may cease,
For the greatest of gifts is a sweet, lasting peace.
May the Lord put an end to these cruel old wars,
And bring peace and contentment to all our brave tars.
|