1801.1
Alteration of the Old Ballad
“Amator Patriae"
[Thomas Campbell]
The Courier (March 18, 1801)
The Morning Chronicle (March 18, 1801)
The Poetical Register and Repository of Fugitive Poetry, IV (1806), pp. 233-234
The Shrewsbury Chronicle (September 4, 1807)

"Ye Gentlemen of England."

         Composed on

The Prospect of a Russian War.

Ye Mariners of England
    That guard our native Seas,
Whose Flag has brav'd a thousand years,
    The Battle and the Breeze,
Your glorious Standard launch again,
    To match another Foe,
And sweep thro' the Deep
    While the Stormy Tempests blow—.
While the Battle rages loud and long
    And the Stormy Tempests blow!

The Spirits of your Fathers
    Shall start from ev'ry wave;
For the Deck it was their Field of Fame
    And Ocean was their Grave!
Where BLAKE[1] (the Boast of Freedom) fell[2]
    Your manly hearts shall glow,
As ye sweep thro' the Deep
    When the stormy Tempests blow—
When the Battle rages loud and long—
    And the stormy tempests blow!

BRITANNIA needs no Bulwark,
    No Tow'rs along the Steep;
Her march is o'er the mountain-waves,
    Her home is on the Deep:—
With thunders from her native Oak
    She quells the floods below,
As they roar on the shore
    When the stormy Tempests blow—
When the Battle rages loud and long
    And the stormy Tempests blow!

The Meteor Flag of England
    Must yet terrific burn,
Till Danger's troubled Night depart
    And the Star of Peace return!
Then, then, ye Ocean Warriors,
    Our Song and Feast shall flow
To the fame of your name,
    When the Tempests cease to blow—
When the fiery fight is heard no more
    And the Tempests cease to blow!

Notes

1. Robert Blake (1599-1657), reorganized the navy under the Commonwealth and had many victories at sea against the Dutch and the Spanish. His most spectacular victory was against the Spanish at Santa Cruz where he had been sent to capture Gibraltar. He destroyed the entire Spanish fleet, with the loss of only one ship and fifty men. Blake authored the Fighting Instructions, the basis for naval tactics throughout the eighteenth century, as well as the Articles of War, the basis of naval discipline.

2. This line was later altered to read "Where Blake and mighty Nelson fell."