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18 HUSH
At Peterhead, with porpoise, he's away ;
Full to the brim of boyish prank and fun,
Where others call a halt, Jock's 37 just begun ;
His comrade on the Dee, of different style,
Like Henry Beauclerc, never known to smile.
In Number Three, two Mac's and Morton view,
Best judges they of what they really do.
Now Number One affords propitious chance -
Away the Captain for a furtive glance.
Here Wemyss' ambitions and his aerials38 find,
Or such as are not scattered by the wind.
The workshops enter, Smallwood's proud domain ;
With King he plies the art of Tubal Cain.
And be it
whispered, well within their zone,
Perfected sound-box of a gramophone !
The secret of the ' porpoise ' here you seek,
Its brazen entrails and its ribs of teak,
Its adult life from embryonic birth,
How well it baffles, 39 and its leak to earth. 39
Now Vulcan's forge is passed,
A stiff
uneasy concourse gathered round ;
belike is found
Self-conscious looks, and neat unsoiled suits
Proclaim them what they be, but new recruits ;
37
Jock Forrester, the hero of modern Scottish romance.
Sometimes I wish that I had concentrated on him, rather than
on the hydrophone.
38
They were rather like Little Bopeep's sheep.
3 '
Technical expressions. A baffle plate usually of lead masked
one of the diaphragms of the revolving drum, so that, on the
bearing reciprocal or opposite to the correct one, you got a
'
diminished sound intensity. Leak to Earth ' : an escape of
electric current, measured in volts.