CURLY:- Talked the whole thing through with Suzie. She went rather pale and quiet, But she's a brick: she said she knew I'd never be completely happy Unless I was floating Between earth and heaven, And they're bound to want Such a hot-stuff pilot, And she'd always wanted To live in Bedford...
I got the job; Well, Certified Airship Officers Weren't exactly thick on the ground. And the new Imperial Airship Service Never scared up more than eight of us For the two ships. Assigned to the R.101 As the Third Officer, Based at Cardington, The Royal Airship Factory, Big as a small town And everything on the grandest scale; A thousand or so people Living for airships, Dwarfed by that monstrous Construction Shed No. 1, The biggest building in the British Empire...
This was the real thing. This was the big time. We'd show the birdmen That Gas was the king. We've got old Sky Hunt As Senior Coxswain; We're all spit and vinegar, Raring to go...
Bigger than the greatest ship on the sea, The largest man-made moving thing The world had ever seen. When Number Two First took me into the shed, The sheer naked size of her, It took my breath away...
The gleaming ribs Of the uncovered skeleton Soared above us like the hectic arches Of some vast and unearthly cathedral: Fantastic silver tracery Seen through a shimmering web Of taut wiring, And, a hundred and fifty feet Above our heads, Men crawled in the glare of arc-lights. He turned to me as we stood In the echoing immensity And said...
SECOND OFFICER:- "Well, what d'you think of her, Curly?"
CURLY:- "Crikey, Jim," I said. "She's quite large..."
Her girders were mostly stainless steel Instead of the usual Duralumin, And her framework certainly looked Enormously strong. I climbed around her In growing astonishment. New gadgets and systems at every turn; Her ingenious complexity Made 'Tiny' look like a crude balloon. She was finished like a watch, With no expense spared, Beautiful craftsmanship From stem to stern, With five gigantic Beardmore diesels To comply with that weird 'no petrol' rule, Everything new and everything different From the old Zeppelin ideas. She had forty-three men And four other officers. Our skipper was Lieutenant Irwin, A quiet and rather nervy Irish chap. And he'd been the Captain of my last ship; Not easy to get close to. But a decent fellow for all that, And the finest airship pilot I ever knew. And we called him 'Bird'. I'd have flown with him anywhere, And now I wish I hadn't...
Month by month, I helped her grow: The delicate lungs, the silver skin, The five-star hotel sunk in her belly That she'd carry To the other side of the world.