Sailors Prayer

From Visiting Vintage

My parents recently found this postcard sent to my great-grandmother in Bremerton from her daughters living in Ballard (my grandfather's sisters) in 1922. I thought it was sweet. I tried to leave the spelling of the poem "as is"

A Sailors Prayer
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
Grant no other sailor take
My shoes and socks before I wake
Lord guard me in my slumber
And keep my hammock on its number
May no clews nor lashings break
And let me down before I wake
Keep me safely in thy sight
And grant no fire drill tonight.
And in the morning let me wake
Breathing scents of sirloin steak
God protect me in my dreams
And make this better than it seems
Grant the time may swiftly fly
When myself shall rest on high
In a snowy feather bed
Where I long to rest my head
Far away from all these scenes
And the smell of half-done beans
Take me back into the land
Where they don't scrub down with sand
Where no demond typhoon blows
Where women wash the clothes
God thou knowest all my woes
Feed me in my dying thoes
Take me back, I'll promise then
Never to leave home again.

THEREE YEARS LATER
Our Father who art in Washington
Pleas dear Father let me stay
Do not drive me now away
Wipe away my scalding tears
And let me stay my thirty years
Please forgive me all my past
And things that happened at the mast
Do not my request refuse
Let me Stay another cruise

Published by P. Wischmeyer 2131-8-AVE. Seattle