By Admiral R. A. Hopwood, R. N. (Ret)

Now these are the laws of the Navy,
Unwritten and varied they be;
And he that is wise will observe them,
Going down in his ship to the sea.

As naught may outrun the destroyer,
Even so with the law and its grip,
For the strength of the ship is the Service,
And the strength of the Service, the ship.

Take heed what ye say of your seniors,
Be your words spoken softly or plain,
Lest a bird of the air tell the matter,
And so ye shall hear it again.

If ye labour from mourn until even’
And meet with reproof for your toil,
It is well that the guns be humbled,
The compressor must check the recoil.

On the strength of one link in the cable,
Dependeth the might of the chain.
Who knows when thou mayest be tested?
So live that thou bearest the strain!

Now these are the Laws of the Navy
And many and mighty are they.
But the hull and the deck and the keel
And the truck of the law is—OBEY

(Excerpts from a famous Navy poem.)

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