Post by KG on Mar 24, 2011 23:59:48 GMT
THE YELLOW FLEET
Nasser closed the Suez Canal in the Six-Day war,
Trapping ships in Bitter Lakes for seven years or more,
Fourteen deep-sea vessels, dust-covered by the sand,
Came to be the `Yellow Fleet` in wind blown off the land.
Different nationalities anchored close together,
Biding out their time in the desert weather,
The UK ships Melimpus with the Scottish Star,
Also Invercargill and Agapenor not far.
Norwegians water skiing, archery with Yanks,
Bulgarians and British, all officers and ranks,
Held their own regattas carefully organized,
The Polish and the Frenchmen also fraternized.
Crews of foreign seamen including Swedes and Czechs,
Picked the teams for soccer - playing on the decks.
They swapped each others goods and partied in the shade,
Even formed a post office where special stamps were made,
Finally in `seventy-five, two ships left the scene,
Münsterland and Nordwind under their own steam,
Reached the port of Hamburg to waving and loud cheers,
The cargo worth a fortune after all those years.
Of the dozen others confined in their prime,
I’m clueless to their fate or outcome since that time,
It was not the life they chose but was the life they got,
Yet another story of a seamen’s diverse lot.
Joe Earl
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K.