Lines from Oz

The Poetry of Brian Langley

I was inspired to write this poem by the erection of a plaque near where I live, listing the various ships that have been wrecked in the vicinity, the most famous of which was the Dutch East Indiaman "Vergult Draek" (spelling??) ("Gilt Dragon") wrecked in the early 1600s. There were some survivors from this tragedy, some of whom managed to sail a longboat to Batavia, Upon the return of a rescue party several months later, no trace was found of those that had remained behind.

3 other similar Dutch Shipwrecks have been found along our coast, the Batavia, Zuytdorp and Zeewick but there are at least two others that left Capetown in Africa, headed for Batavia
(now Jakarta), never to be seen again.

Perhaps this poem is the story of one of them 

 

 

Shipwreck

It's been a week, we've seen no sun.
The howling gales persist.
Our ship is driven by the wind
Into the spray and mist

It almost seems she'll not survive
Each wave that thunders by.
The boiling foam is all around.
We cannot see the sky

We've no idea where we are.
We fear we'll soon be dead.
And all that we can do is pray
There are no shoals ahead.

We've lost three men, swept overboard.
Their cries we could not hear
Above the howling of the wind
We watched them disappear

Into a watery, unmarked grave,
No priest to watch them die.
Forever, as an albatross
Their souls are doomed to fly.

And still our ship is driven on
Toward the distant shore
And all we see are monstrous waves.
Their sound, a constant roar.

We've scarcely eaten for a week,
The galley's washed away.
Just salt beef and some biscuits
Are all we have each day.

Our sails are gone, torn into shreds,
We've two men on the wheel.
They fight to keep our ship afloat
As on each wave we heel.

Then as we crest a giant wave
We see a sight we dread.
There’s no escape - God save us from
The line of rocks ahead.

We sweep toward the jagged reef
That guards a hostile shore.
Our fate is firmly in God's hand
For we can do no more.

Then suddenly, a mighty blow.
Our ship stops in her tracks.
The waves wash over shattered decks,
The mainmast bends and cracks.

There's rope and splintered timber
All tangled in the foam
Our once proud ship is now a wreck
Ten thousand miles from home.



I do not know how long it took
For me to drift to shore.
A mighty wave washed over me.
I know of nothing more

Till I awoke, wet, sore and cold
Dumped on this foreign land,
Surrounded by the flotsam of
Our ship upon the sand.



It's three long months since I was cast
Upon this barren place.
There's nothing here for me to eat,
It's starving that I face.

I've used the food that came ashore
With the bodies of the dead.
I dream of home, so far away
And many tears I've shed

For friends and family left behind,
For love I've never known.
But, mostly for myself I cry.
For I am here - alone.


© B.Langley 28/3/00

 

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