Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Military Technology, Steamships, Engineering, Politics, Accidents

    Discusses the powers and responsibilities conferred on the admiral, Baldwin W Walker, who is represented as possessing detailed information about the questionable state of the British Navy's ships and the organisation of its shipyards. For example, he knows 'what ships are bad and good, / And how, though iron's proved the thing, we still keep using wood', 'how clever schemes get pooh-poohed by some official pup, / And trial ships so oft break down, and then get broken up', and 'of all our gunboat fleet how few there are of use, / How many paddles won't now work, how many screws are loose'.