The first time I signed as mate, the Old Man says to me,
"Don't forget that cargo damage comes from Perils of the Sea."
And so through all my years of sailin' ships in sun and fog,
I know the proper answers when I'm writin' up my log.
Did some rivets get corroded in Starboard Number Four?
Did we stow our reefer cargo on the fire-room floor?
Don't worry, Lad. The log will show the working of my plan.
I can multiply the Beaufort Scale as well as any man.
So if your cargo suffers little mishaps such as these –
If we stow your tea and coffee in with Gorgonzola cheese
And the slight resultant odor causes claims from consignees,
I rouse the vasty deep and magnify the vagrant breeze.
Such damage, Lad, is always due to Perils of the Seas.
James Quinby
was employed as an average adjuster after his graduation from Stanford Law
school in 1921 and in 1926 associated with the law firm Derby, Single and
Sharp which had relocated in San Francisco from the Hawaiian Islands in
1905. He was soon writing a regular column for a magazine called Pacific
Marine Review and eventually took to incorporating bits of verse into his
column.
Over time, there were quite a
few of these poems and a group of his associates took it upon themselves to
underwrite the cost of publishing them as a group which became known by the
lead poem "The Street and the Sea." The Law firm later became
known as Derby, Cook, Quinby and Tweedt and he practiced law until his
retirement in 1976. Mr. Quinby was known for his integrity, wit and
intellect. He passed away in 1989 at the age of 95.
