When Norway Would Not Help

When Kattegat now or the Belt you sail,No more will you sightThe Danish proud frigate, no more will you hailThe red and white;No more will the ringing command be heardIn Wessel's tongue,No rollicking music, no jocund word,'Neath Dannebrog sung.No dance will you see, no laughter meet,As the white sails shine,From mast and from stern no garland you greet,Of arts the sign.But all that we owned of the treasures on boardThe deeps now hold;One sad winter night to the sea-waves were pouredOur memories old.

It was that same night, when the frigate nighTo Norway's landDistress-guns was firing, the surf running highWith sea-weed and sand.To help from the harbor men put out boats,But they turn back, ...The frigate toward Germany drifting floats,A broken wrack!What once had been ours overboard was strown,Each kinship markWas quickly removed, to the sea it was thrownWith curses stark!The Northern lion, that figure-head gray,Now had to fall,In pieces 'twas hewn, and the frigate layLike a shattered wall.Repaired and refitted, its canvas it spreadNear Germany's coast,With black-yellow flag and an eagle dreadIn the lion's post.When sailing we Kattegat sweep with our eyes,'T is still evermore.But a German admiral's frigate liesNear Scania's shore.