No 23 the Death of Parker
C.J.S.
1
Ye Powers above protect the Widow,
And with pity look on me!
O help me, help me out of trouble
And out of my calamity.
For by the death of my brave Parker
Fortune to me has prov’d unkind.
Tho’ doomed by law his death to suffer,
I can not cast him from my mind.
2
O Parker was the truest husband,
Best of friends, whom I love dear.
Yet when he was a-called to suffer,
To him I might not then draw near.
Again I ask’d, again I pleaded,
Three times entreating, all in vain,
They ever that request refused me,
And ordered me ashore again.
3
The yellow flag I saw was flying,
A signal for my love to die,
The gun was fir’d, as was requir’d
To hang him on the yardarm high.
The boatswain did his best endeavour,
I on the shore was put straightway,
There I tarried, watching, weeping,
My husband’s corpse to bear away.
4
Then farewell Parker best belov-ed
That was once the Navy’s pride.
And since we might not die together,
We separate henceforth abide.
His sorrows now are past and over,
Now he resteth free from pain.
Grant O God his soul may enter,
Where one day we may meet again.