The Walter Hood

The Walter Hood

From London town they sailed away,

Tiles for a church they bore,

Ninety days upon the wave,

Till sight of Sydney’s shore.

Chorus

Heave away, boys, heave away,

Through storm and thunder loud!

Raise a glass for the Walter Hood,

And her crew both brave and proud.

Off Red Head’s coast the tempest blew,

The night was black with rain,

The captain drunk, the tiller swung,

They’d never sail again.

She struck the reef, the timbers tore,

The sea it claimed its due,

Eleven souls to Monument Beach,

The rest— a battered crew.

Now Bendalong remembers well,

The wreck upon the sand,

A stone to mark those sailors lost,

Far from their homeland.