Beneath the oceans restless skin;
Deep below the waves.
Lie the rotting hulks of many ships.
Sailors lonely graves.

Fighting storms and tempests
To bring goods to our shore.
A mighty wave; a ships back broke;
They were seen no more.

Buried neath the waving fronds
Of giant beds of kelp.
They went down on foundering ships.
Far beyond our help.

In times of peace and in times of war
These unsung hero's sail.
They were the lifelines to our shores.
But sometimes alas, they fail.

Just ordinary merchant seamen,
Paid to do their work.
Knowing the risks they had to run
They never thought to shirk.

Under the sea the U Boats stalked.
Hunting like the shark.
Killing with torpedoes.
Silent in the dark.

To all of us that stay ashore
And sleep in a safe warm bed.
We have a lot of thanks to give.
When the sea gives up her dead.

Brian Joseph Dickenson

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/merchant-marine/