The Mighty Deep 



found often their graves beneath its surface. 

 The English then, as now, were Ocean-folk. 



May it not be that we in modern days love the 

 sea, and flock to its shores, and carry our Flag 

 to its furthest bounds, because our forefathers, 

 the Norsemen, the Angles, the ancient Vikings, 

 found their joy in it ? Their march, like ours, 

 was on the mountain- wave ; their Home, like 

 ours, was on the deep. 



Probably with them, as with us, it was not 

 always an unchastened joy. Even a hardy 

 Viking might know the unpleasant consequences 

 of Ocean's rougher moods. But no such dis- 

 comforts drove him to stay ashore. 



Had our forefathers been made of feebler 

 stuff, had they been easily checked in their 

 enterprises, centuries of history must have been 

 changed. The development of English nature 

 would have followed other lines. 



In those days the fight could not but be severe. 

 No mighty ironclads, no huge three-deckers, 

 existed. No P. and O. liners, no great merchant 

 ships ranged the seas. Our forefathers tackled 

 the waste of waters with what we should con- 

 sider the merest cockleshells. Even in these 

 days we know what is meant by "perils of the 

 seas ; " but in those days the term must have 



