The Anchor Watch by Cicely Fox Smith

Weekend before last I had the honour of listening to (and singing along loudly with) some shanties by the best shanty men in Australia. Don Brian, Chris Maltby and Tom Hanson are not just great performers, but also encourage the singing of others and retain a vast knowledge of the history of these songs.

I have dug into the Cicely Fox Smith archive again and found this poem, as far as I know it has not been set to music yet:
https://allpoetry.com/The-Anchor-Watch

The refrain is from the much better known shanty, Congo River or Blow, Boys Blow. Sung here by Kimber's Men:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkSbFt-NnM4

The Bush Traditions Gathering weekend also included another shanty session led by the Canberra Shanty Group with Iain & Norrae Johnston and Ewan Lawrie.

I had to also include a photo that Ewan took of my evening concert in the 180 year old Lovat Chapel:
https://www.ohta.org.au/organs/organs/YassLovatChapel.html