While The Billy BoilsSearchOf all the docks upon the blueThere was no dockyard, old or new,To touch the dock at Cockatoo.
Of all the ministerial clanThere was no nicer, worthier manThan Admiral O’Sullivan.
Of course we mean E. W.O’Sullivan, the hero whoControlled the dock at Cockatoo.
To workmen he explained his views—“You need not toil unless you choose,Your only work is drawing screws.”
And sometimes to their great surpriseWhen votes of censure filled the skiesHe used to give them all a rise.
“What odds about a pound or two?”Exclaimed the great E. W.O’Sullivan at Cockatoo.
The dockyard superintendent, heWas not at all what he should be—He sneered at all this sympathy.
So when he gave a man the sackO’Sullivan got on his trackAnd straightway went and fetched him back.
And with a sympathetic tearHe’d say, “How dare you interfere,You most misguided engineer?
“Your sordid manners please amend—No man can possibly offendWho has a Member for a friend.
“With euchre, or a friendly rub,And whisky from the nearest ‘pub’,We’ll make the dockyard like a club.
“Heave ho, my hearties, play away,We’ll do no weary work today.What odds—the public has to pay!
“And if the public should complainI’ll go to Broken Hill by trainTo watch McCarthy making rain.”
And there, with nothing else to doNo doubt the great E. W.Will straightway raise McCarthy’s screw.