Speedwell

"We're gonna need a bigger boat." - Roy Scheider (Jaws)

In fifteen-seventy-seven,
Queen Bess made a commission.
She wanted naval vessels built
to defeat the Inquisition.
The Duke o'Alba had been granted
Spanish power as a gift,
reform'd Dutchmen kindly offered
to build Bess some ships, so swift!

"She is called the Swiftsure and weighs in at roughly 60 tons.
We can't fit much else in her, what with all the men and guns."
Sir Gilly Merick aimed her at the wide Armada's throat.
He shot, he sighed, then he cried, "We're gonna need a bigger boat."
Retir'd from her naval life as too small after missions,
renamed 'Speedwell' for quick sell, upon decommission

Leiden Separatists bought her,
eagerly setting off to meet,
The Mayflower as a chartered part
of a merchant investment fleet.
Both set sail for New Horizons;
(one hundred leagues) then turn'd about.
Water shouldn't splash 'round ankles,
the cruel sea should stay without.

With much expense and rolling eyes, they sallied forth with hope,
but Speedwell sprang more leaks: "We're gonna need a drier boat."
Sold again as a 'bad lot', not knowing it was the sailors,
who didn't like so long away from their friends and neighbors.
"Squeeze the settlers in the Mayflower - the lads can sleep on ropes.
Turkey dinners waiting - we're gonna need to share the boat."

Finally she found Boston with
Quakers; Copeland and Holder.
John Endecotte did not greet them,
and (as he was the Governor)
He packed them back off to Britain,
thinking America too small.
"They're not my cup of tea," said he,
"I won't make martyrs of 'em all."

Decommissioned, sabotaged, and then left to slowly rot
This albatross of shipping history, shall truly not be lost!

(38 lines)