{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/the-surrender-of-the-german-fleet",
 "title": "The Surrender of the German Fleet",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Henry van Dyke Jr.",
 "poet_slug": "henry-van-dyke-jr",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Poems of Henry Van Dyke",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 128,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1920,
  "venue": "The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1920)",
  "note": "Taken from the 1920 collected edition. That is the printing this text comes from, not the poem's first appearance: the volume gathers work published from 1897 onward, and which earlier book or magazine printed this poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofhenryvand00vandrich"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/henry-van-dyke-jr_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16229",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16134",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10679",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3525",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9372",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29314",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43094",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofhenryvand00vandrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/buildersotherpoe00vandrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/toilingoffelixan00vandiala",
   "https://archive.org/details/musicotherpoems0000henr_c7v6",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsnowfirstcol00vanduoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/songsoutofdoors0000vand",
   "https://archive.org/details/thyseaisgreatour00vandiala",
   "https://archive.org/details/chosenpoems0000vand"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 76,
  "max_indent": 5
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Ship after ship, and every one with a high-resounding name,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the robber-nest of Heligoland the German war-fleet came;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not victory or death they sought, but a rendezvous of shame.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sing out, sing out,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "A joyful shout,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye lovers of the sea!",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "The “Kaiser” and the “Kaiserin,”",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "The “König” and the “Prinz,”",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "The potentates of piracy,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "Are coming to surrender,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "And the ocean shall be free.",
    "indent": 5
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "They never dared the final fate of battle on the blue;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their sea-wolves murdered merchantmen and mocked the drowning crew;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They stained the wave with martyr-blood⁠—but we sent our transports through!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What flags are these that dumbly droop from the gaff o’ the mainmast tall?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The black of the Kaiser’s iron cross, the red of the Empire’s fall!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come down, come down, ye pirate flags. Yea, strike your colors all.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The Union Jack and the Tricolor and the Starry Flag o’ the West",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall guard the fruit of Freedom’s war and the victory confest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The flags of the brave and just and free shall rule on the ocean’s breast.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sing out, sing out,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "A mighty shout,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye lovers of the sea!",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "The “Kaiser” and the “Kaiserin,”",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "The “König” and the “Prinz,”",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "The robber-lords of death and sin,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "Have come to their surrender,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "And the ocean shall be free!",
    "indent": 5
   }
  ]
 ]
}