Elwin C. Nickerson, l

Surfman Creed

When the Lord breathes His wrath above the bosom of the waters, When the rollers are a-pounding on the shore, When the mariner's a-thinking of his wife and son's and daughters, And the little home he'll, maybe see no more;

When the bars are white and yeasty, and the shoals are all a-frothing, When the Nor'easter's cutting like a knife; Through the seethin' roar and screech he's patroling on the beach, The Government's hired man for saving life.

He's a-struggling with the gusts that strike and bruise him like a hammer; He's a-fighting sand that stings like swarmin' bees, He's a-listening through the whirlwind and the thunder and the clamor, A-listening for the signal from the seas.

He's a-breaking ribs and muscles launching lifeboats in the surges, He's dripping wet and chilled in every bone, He's a-bringing men from death, back to flesh and blood and breath, And never stops to think about his own.

He's a pulling at an oar that is freezing to his fingers, he's a-clinging to the rigging of a wreck. He knows destructions nearer every minute that he lingers; But it doesn't seem to worry him a speck.

He is draggin' draggled corpes from the clutches of the combers, The kind of job a common man would shirk; But he takes them from the waves and fit them for graves, And he thinks it's all included in his work.

He is a rigger, rower, swimmer, sailor, doctor, undertaker, And he's good at every one of them the same; And he risks his life for others in the quicksand and the breakers, And a thousand wives and mothers bless his name.

He's an angel dressed in oilskins; he's a saint in the "Sou'wester," He's a pluck as they come, or ever can; He's a hero born and bred, but it hasn't swelled his head, For he's just the U.S. Government's hired man.USLSS- Pamet/Monomoy-