ALL day they loitered by the resting ships, 
Telling their beauties over, taking stock; 
At night the verdict left my messmate's lips, 
"The Wanderer is the finest ship in dock." 

I had not seen her, but a friend, since drowned, 
Drew her, with painted ports, low, lovely, lean, 
Saying, "The Wanderer, clipper, outward bound, 
The loveliest ship my eyes have ever seen-- 

"Perhaps to-morrow you will see her sail. 
She sails at sunrise": but the morrow showed 
No Wanderer setting forth for me to hail; 
Far down the stream men pointed where she rode, 

Rode the great trackway to the sea, dim, dim, 
Already gone before the stars were gone. 
I saw her at the sea-line's smoky rim 
Grow swiftly vaguer as they towed her on. 

Soon even her masts were hidden in the haze 
Beyond the city; she was on her course 
To trample billows for a hundred days; 
That afternoon the northerner gathered force, 

Blowing a small snow from a point of east. 
"Oh, fair for her," we said, "to take her south." 
And in our spirits, as the wind increased, 
We saw her there, beyond the river mouth, 

Setting her side-lights in the wildering dark, 
To glint upon mad water, while the gale 
Roared like a battle, snapping like a shark, 
And drunken seamen struggled with the sail. 

While with sick hearts her mates put out of mind 
Their little children, left astern, ashore, 
And the gale's gathering made the darkness' blind, 
Water and air one intermingled roar. 

Then we forgot her, for the fiddlers played, 
Dancing and singing held our merry crew; 
The old ship moaned a little as she swayed. 
It blew all night, oh, bitter hard it blew! 

So that at midnight I was called on deck 
To keep an anchor-watch: I heard the sea 
Roar past in white procession filled with wreck; 
Intense bright stars burned frosty over me, 

And the Greek brig beside us dipped and dipped, 
White to the muzzle like a half-tide rock, 
Drowned to the mainmast with the seas she shipped; 
Her cable-swivels clanged at every shock. 

And like a never-dying force, the wind 
Roared till we shouted with it, roared until 
Its vast virality of wrath was thinned, 
Had beat its fury breathless and was still. 

By dawn the gale had dwindled into flaw, 
A glorious morning followed: with my friend 
I climbed the fo'c's'le-head to see; we saw 
The waters hurrying shoreward without end. 

Haze blotted out the river's lowest reach; 
Out of the gloom the steamers, passing by, 
Called with their sirens, hooting their sea-speech; 
Out of the dimness others made reply. 

And as we watched, there came a rush of feet 
Charging the fo'c's'le till the hatchway shook. 
Men all about us thrust their way, or beat, 
Crying, "Wanderer! Down the river! Look!" 

I looked with them towards the dimness; there 
Gleamed like a spirit striding out of night, 
A full-rigged ship unutterably fair, 
Her masts like trees in winter, frosty-bright. 

Foam trembled at her bows like wisps of wool; 
She trembled as she towed. I had not dreamed 
That work of man could be so beautiful, 
In its own presence and in what it seemed. 

"So, she is putting back again," I said. 
"How white with frost her yards are on the fore." 
One of the men about me answer made, 
"That is not frost, but all her sails are tore, 

"Torn into tatters, youngster, in the gale; 
Her best foul-weather suit gone." It was true, 
Her masts were white with rags of tattered sail 
Many as gannets when the fish are due. 

Beauty in desolation was her pride, 
Her crowned array a glory that had been; 
She faltered tow'rds us like a swan that died, 
But altogether ruined she was still a queen. 

"Put back with all her sails gone," went the word; 
Then, from her signals flying, rumor ran, 
"The sea that stove her boats in killed her third; 
She has been gutted and has lost a man." 

So, as though stepping to a funeral march, 
She passed defeated homewards whence she came, 
Ragged with tattered canvas white as starch, 
A wild bird that misfortune had made tame. 

She was refitted soon: another took 
The dead man's office; then the singers hove 
Her capstan till the snapping hawsers shook; 
Out, with a bubble at her bows, she drove. 

Again they towed her seawards, and again 
We, watching, praised her beauty, praised her trim, 
Saw her fair house-flag flutter at the main, 
And slowly saunter seawards, dwindling dim; 

And wished her well, and wondered, as she died, 
How, when her canvas had been sheeted home, 
Her quivering length would sweep into her stride, 
Making the greenness milky with her foam. 

But when we rose next morning, we discerned 
Her beauty once again a shattered thing;