An Ode to Peter B

A seaman's life follows a course
Directed in arbitrary fashion,
All becomes a desperate fusion
Laced with Captain's call urgent and hoarse.

To know the path as sail is set,
With tempests and calms and anchorages idyllic
Or if the passage be sane or plain or heroic.
These questions to our Captain oft go unmet.

What shipmates shall share our time?
And what dangers before in the murk?
Ahead the perils draw and lurk,
But good mates will support and make all fine.

Shipmates together on a short passage
Peter and I plied the seaman's way;
In ship's bilge and bar and bay,
And still our freindship will last the age.

Peter's called to horizon's new;
He walks with Neptune, Poseidon and Davy,
Showing he is man in anyone's navy;
In a world of problems few.

So rally shipmates of Peter B;
For he awaits us in that other place
With a pint on the bar and no hint of a race
For now his course runs truly free.

Peter Burlison was found drowned 21 December, 2002.
He was one of the earliest and most stalwart members of the New Zealand Maritime Restoration School Trust Committee. He was there when we moved our first boat, the Dauntless. He gave his physical and moral support even though the negotiations were not part of his norm and most of all he gave me cameraderie in the bleakest of times.

I shall miss him.
Jay Lawry
NZ Maritime Restoration School