Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Steamships, Invention, Engineering, Nationalism, War

    Celebrates the floating of the SS Great Britain, a ship formerly grounded 'On the bleak coast of Ireland'. Recollects the vain attempts to float the ship which 'lay, like a sheer-hulk, whose sailing is o'er', but adds that 'kind summer hath come, with its blessings so free, / And she floats, Our Great Britain, the Queen of the Sea!'. Asserts that the ship sustained storm and shoal, but was ready, 'When the world's fleet was shattered against the French main'.