# An interesting idea?



## 40907 (Sep 26, 2009)

http://www.facebook.com/SeafarerDay


----------



## Barrie Youde (May 29, 2006)

IT CAME HERE BY SEA

I came by the sea, when the last ice-age melted.
I lived with the animals, coated and felted,
Booted and fed: And by bone I made comb.
In winter the animals dwelt in my home.

I came here by sea. Other people then followed.
Shoulders were rubbed. Cheek by jowl people wallowed.
Order was kept. More or less. By degree.
And still people came; more and more. By the sea.

We lived by the sea, so a navy we built.
The sea was our mortgage, perhaps, to the hilt.
The strength of our seaboard defended us, fully
Against all invasion by braggart and bully.

We lived by the sea. We continued to trade.
Immigrants. Emigrants. Friendship was made.
Balance was needed as numbers increased.
Dependence on maritime lore never ceased.

We live by the sea. It is ours and we need it.
Let’s not overlook it nor foul it nor bleed it.
The mortgage? Did someone say that was redeemed?
The speaker was mad. He was blind. Or he dreamed.

BY
19.06.2012


----------



## Barrie Youde (May 29, 2006)

Hi, Reef-Knot!

The answer to your question is, yes, very much so.

In the Admiralty Court in London there is an oar. If I remember rightly, it is made of silver, it is life-size and it sits on the front of the Judge's desk. Its purpose is to remind the Judge of the very point which you make; and also to signify that the good order of our whole being depends on the point which you make; and that anybody who might forget it does so at his peril.

Further suggestions as to how the matter could be kept more clearly in the public mind would be more than welcome!

The point which I try to make in my verse is that my Welsh blood reminds me that I am descended from the ancient Britons, who arrived here in these islands a very long time before the Wright brothers were born or the Channel Tunnel had been dug. The ancestors of most of us did likewise.


----------



## 40907 (Sep 26, 2009)

Enjoyed you response Barry. Just to clear up what may be a misconception - I had nothing to do with the facebook page. I came across it while keeping up with my kids.


----------



## stein (Nov 4, 2006)

I'm not on facebook so I have no access, but the poem of Barrie I've read and found very good!


----------



## 40907 (Sep 26, 2009)

Hi Stein. I'm surprised you need to be a registered facebook user just to read the page.

Here is an item from that page...

http://www.facebook.com/SeafarerDay


----------



## stein (Nov 4, 2006)

This is still all I get. (Not that important: I suppose it is a national seafarer's day to be celebrated once a year. Why not, might be an occassion to gather and remember.)


----------



## Oz. (Sep 6, 2005)

I have the same trouble as Stein, I dont know what this thread is about.


----------



## 40907 (Sep 26, 2009)

I'm afraid I don't know how to get around the facebook issue but I did find this....

http://www.imo.org/About/Events/dayoftheseafarer/Pages/default.aspx

Could be a meaningful substitute.


----------



## Barrie Youde (May 29, 2006)

This isle is full of strange noises - and there are funny goings-on in this thread, too. 

Last night even I could follow Reef-Knot's signals towards a web-page arranged by the International Maritime Organization (no less) which was/is intended to draw worldwide public attention (from the IMO London office) to our dependence on the sea. Readers were/are encouraged to adopt the slogan "It came here by sea and I can't live without it" - as an obvious reference to our imports by sea and our reliance thereon.

Now I cannot reach the web-page, either, without being required to log into Facebook - which is wholly beyond my competence.

But the proposition (from IMO as a limb of the United Nations), to remind the general public of our dependence on the sea for our existence, is one which should be seised and encouraged by all of us.


----------

