Here was the starting of many long journeys,
For ships of the traders and ships of the crown,
Bearing ambitions of merchants and venturers,
Seekers of fortune, of fame and renown.
Here passed the ships with their chains and their manacles,
Bound for the darklands of pillage and spoil,
Bringing the bounty of man's inhumanity,
Booty from captives in labour and toil.
Quiet the passage that saw such activity,
Fuelled by the greed and ambition of men,
Dunlin and sandpiper, redshank and curlew,
Fly unmolested, alone once again.
Gone are the tall ships that sailed in such number,
Piercing the sky with their rigging and masts,
Gone are the princes of commerce and plunder,
Caught on the ebbing of history's past.
1993